Antonio Celia

Antonio Celia retired form his corporate career in 2018 to become a Visiting Professor in practice at the London School of Economics. Engineer from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, with executive education in finance at MIT , Universidad de los Andes Presidentes de Empresas and the Advanced Management Program from Wharton School of Business. Antonio was the CEO of Promigas, a major holding and operating Company in the energy sector in Colombia and Latinoamerica, for 26 years.
 
He served on the board of directors of many companies in the private sector. He was Co-founder and Chairman of Empresarios por la Educación, an NGO working for improving the quality of public education in Colombia. He also served for 2 years as Chairman of the National board of Andi (Asociación Nacional de industriales y empresarios), as well as Chairman of Consejo Privado de Competitividad and the private Council for a sustainable Peace.
 
He currently belongs to the Council of directors of Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Fedesarrollo (Colombian Think Tank), Fundación Pies descalzos (Shakira´s NGO for education), Museo de arte moderno de Barranquilla ,Fundación Ideas por la Paz, Fundación Centro histórico de Cartagena and is the chairman and publisher of Contexto, a digital media, founded in 2020. In 2018 Antonio received La orden de Boyacá, the maximum distinction that the Republic of Colombia awards to its citizens.
 
Mr Celia's areas of interest are: conflict solution, education, regional development and State capacity in Latin América. He demonstrated all along in his various positions a very strong commitment with peace treaties in Colombia. During his academic visit at Oxford LAC he will share his experiences in key stages of these processes that began in 2002 with the ELN guerrilla and finished in 2018 with el acuerdo de La Habana with FARC.