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Former Mayor of Bogotá Named ITDP Senior Fellow

01 Jul 2006

Posted In: Colombia

Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, has been named a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

Matt Sholler, ITDP

“ITDP is honored to have Mr. Peñalosa join us as a Senior Fellow,” said ITDP Executive Director Walter Hook.  “Enrique Peñalosa’s transformation of the city of Bogotá from a nightmare of traffic congestion to one of the world’s most livable cities has made him an inspiration for leaders around the world.  ITDP has never had a better spokesman for its ideals and values.” Peñalosa will continue to serve on ITDP’s Board of Directors.

Photo: From left: Enrique Peñalosa, ITDP Senior Fellow and former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, with Kleist Sykes, former Mayor of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Source: Oscar Diaz, ITDP)

As Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia from 1998 to 2001, Mr. Peñalosa is widely credited for giving a city of over six million back to its people by implementing TransMilenio, a landmark, state-of-the-art Bus Rapid Transit system that serves more than one million passengers per day; a network of bicycle lanes that extend more than 180 miles; a license plate-based system for reducing automobile congestion during weekday peak-hour periods; and a wide variety of parks, libraries, and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and streetscapes.  Watch the three-minute video below to see highlights of Mr. Peñalosa’s achievements in Bogotá (provided courtesy of New York Streets Renaissance and the Open Planning Project):

Since his tenure as Mayor (under Colombian law incumbents city officials are not allowed to seek re-election), Mr. Peñalosa has served as Visiting Scholar at New York University and under the auspices of ITDP and other organizations has advised numerous governments on urban issues in both developing countries and industrialized nations like the U.S.

His previous positions include Colombia Director of Arthur D. Little Consulting; President, Colombian Institute of Mortgage Banks (ICAV); Economic Secretary to the Colombian President; Dean of the Business Administration School at Externado de Colombia University; Commercial and Administrative Vice-president of the Bogotá Water and Sewage Company, Director of the Planning Department of the State of Cundinamarca; Researcher at the National Association of Financial Institutions; among others.  He was elected to the House of the Representatives of the Colombian Congress and to the Bogotá City Council.

Mr. Peñalosa has also been honored with the Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Prize, the highest form of recognition by Bogotá’s City Improvement Society; the Eisenhower Fellowship, and the National Simon Bolivar Prize for Journalism, the Prize of the Society of Economists of Bogotá and Cundinamarca.

Mr. Peñalosa holds a bachelor degree in Economics and History from Duke University and Masters and Doctorate degrees in Management and Public Administration from the Institut International D’Administration Publique and the University of Paris II in Paris.