María Ángela Holguín

 
María Ángela Holguín Cuellar is a Colombian political scientist and former minister for foreign affairs of Colombia (2010-2018). As minister of foreign affairs, she served as delegate of the president in the peace process negotiation and was a member of the Post-Conflict Cabinet.

Holguín has previously served as deputy minister of foreign affairs of Colombia and acting minister (1998), ambassador and permanent representative of Colombia to the United Nations (2004-2006), Colombian ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (2002-2004) and first secretary at the Embassy of Colombia in France, in charge of trade affairs (1992).

She was chief of staff for the vice president of Colombia (2006-2008), assistant director of the Administrative Department of the Office of the President (1996) and private secretary to the Office of the Public Prosecutor (1991).

In the academic sphere, Holguín was the director of the Program for Strengthening Democracy at Los Andes University in 1988. She graduated with a degree in political science from the School of Political Science of Los Andes University, with a specialization in diplomacy and strategy from the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris. She holds a specialization in public administration and administrative institutions from Los Andes University. She also has studied negotiation theory and practice at Harvard University and French civilization and literature at Paris-Sorbonne University.

As part of her wide-ranging professional experience, Holguín also was coordinator for Colombia at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank and at the Inter-American Investment Corporation (1997) and was executive director of the Regional Conference for Children in Latin American and the Caribbean (1997). She also was regional director for Latin America of Worldview International Foundation (1999-2002), and was an advisor to the President of the Andean Development Corporation  in 2006.