Isabel Saint Malo

Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado
Vice President of Panama
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2014
Preceded by	Juan Carlos Varela
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2014
Preceded by	Francisco Álvarez de Soto
Personal details
Born	Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado 27 June 1968 Panama City, Panama
Political party	Independent
Spouse(s)	Omar Alvarado
Children	3
Alma mater	Saint Joseph's University and Nova Southeastern University

Isabel Saint Malo with Reuven Rivlin the President of Israel

Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado (born 27 June 1968) is a Panamanian politician and the current Vice President of Panama. She ran with elected President, Juan Carlos Varela, on the ticket made up of the Panameñista and Popular Parties’ alliance “El Pueblo Primero”. She is the first woman in Panama’s history elected for this post.^[1]

Education

Saint Malo de Alvarado holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Saint Joseph's University and a Master´s Degree in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University, and has extensive experience in the development and public policy sectors.

Career

For 15 years she worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Panama; ending her career at the organization as Country Programme Manager and Assistant Resident Representative. She led several national consensus-building initiatives, including the National Consensus Building Process for Development (Concertación Nacional para el Desarrollo) that drafted a national development agenda towards 2025. Saint Malo also led several dialogue initiatives in education, health, social security and governance, among them the Bambito and Coronado Agreements which were successful in facilitating the transition to democracy in the early 90’s and national legislation that created the Panama Canal Authority. At UNDP she managed an extensive project portfolio in initiatives related to poverty reduction, environmental protection, modernization of the state, and democratic governance.

In recent years Saint Malo has served as an independent consultant for international organizations as well as the public and private sectors. At the behest of the National Government, in 2010 she acted as Independent Facilitator of the dialogue process that culminated in the reform of Law No. 30 and successfully averted a confrontation among different sectors.

Saint Malo was Alternate Ambassador to the Panamanian Mission to the United Nations in New York and served as part of negotiations teams for different regional political processes from her position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She has been a member of the Board of Directors for several private and non profit institutions and was awarded in 2012 The Women of the Year Award.^[2]

Foreign Minister of Panama

Upon being elected as Vice President of Panama, President-elect Juan Carlos Varela also named Saint Malo as his Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[3]

Personal life

She is married and has three children.

References

1. Chambers, Mon Alicia. "Isabel de Saint Malo: La vicepresidenta". La Prensa.
2. "Mujer destacada del año". 3 May 2012.
3. "Varela names first three ministers". Newsroom Panama. 11 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.

External sources

• Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vicepresidenta de Juan Carlos Varela(Spanish)
• Mujeres en la Vicepresidencia(Spanish)