Bio

Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández is a Managing Partner at BEEL Infrastructure, an advisory and asset management firm based in Mexico City, and a Senior Advisor at Covington and Burling LLP in the public policy practice in Washington D.C., where he provides strategic advice to businesses on political and regulatory risk, corporate diplomacy, communications, and business development.

He is and independent board member Seguros Monterrey New York Life, and serves in the advisory boards of AEMUSA (Mexican Entrepreneur Association of the United States), the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and the American Society of Mexico

Gerónimo has over 20 years of experience in senior government positions under five Mexican presidents in the areas of finance, trade, national security and diplomacy. Most recently, he served as Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States. In that position, he played a prominent role in the negotiation of the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA).

He served as Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States (2017-2018), during the negotiations of the United States of America, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA).

From 2010 to 2016, he served as Managing Director of the North American Development Bank (NADB) headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Under his leadership, the loan portfolio grew on average 32% per year and the bank conducted several successful bond issues in the U.S. and European Markets, while maintaining a strong financial position and AA global credit ratings.

Between 2009 and 2010, he served as Deputy Secretary for Governance and Homeland Security, with the main responsibility of identifying threats to the country’s democratic governance and national security and coordinating the government’s prevention and response measures. During this time, he was also a member of the National Security Council’s Executive Committee.

From 2006 to 2009, he served as Under Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Foreign Ministry. In that capacity, Gutiérrez was responsible for normalizing the Mexico-Cuba relationship after a strained period, as well as the re-establishment of ambassadors with Venezuela. He led Mexico’s negotiations with Mesoamerican countries for the creation of Proyecto Mesoamerica, a multilateral cooperation mechanism for social development and regional infrastructure.

Also, as Under Secretary for North America (2003 to 2006) he coordinated day-to-day trilateral and bilateral affairs with Mexico’s North American partners (United States and Canada) and supervised the operations of over 50 Mexican Consular representations in the region. He led negotiations for the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America (SPP) –prelude to the present-day North American Leaders Summit– and worked closely with other agencies in border and regional security cooperation with U.S. and Canadian authorities.

Gutiérrez held other federal government positions in the Ministries of Economy and Treasury, the Office of the President and Banobras (Mexico’s national public works bank). On the political front, he worked as part of President-Elect Vicente Fox’s transition team, as Director of Miguel Estrada Iturbide Foundation, the Partido Acción Nacional’s (Mexico center-right party) think-tank, and as Chief of Staff of its parliamentary group.

Gutiérrez holds a B.A. in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) where he also studied Political Science and a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, for which he received a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship.