Speaker Profile

Alberto J. Bernal-León is the Chief Global Strategist at the institutional desk of XP Investments. Previously he was Head of Research and partner at Bulltick, LLC, MD of Emerging Fixed Income Research at Bear Stearns Inc. in New York City, and Head of Latin America Economic Research at IDEAglobal Inc., also in New York City. Mr. Bernal is a frequent contributor to major newswires, local press in Latin America, prominent world newspapers, and is a frequent contributor on financial television networks. He has also been invited to participate as a panelist on a series of official, economic, and academic events around the world. Mr. Bernal was named the most accurate economist of Colombia in 2006 by Revista Dinero, one of the top five future economists of Colombia by the newspaper La República, one of the future top 40 executives under 40 years by the Latin American publication Revista Poder, one of the top ten regional minds by the IADB, and one of 100 Latin America leaders under 40 by the Revista Gerente. He was a research scholar for Columbia University’s Chazen Institute and holds a master’s degree in Macroeconomics from Germany’s Kiel Institute of World Economics. He received his Honors Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the University of New Orleans. Mr. Bernal is a columnist for LatinTrade Magazine, El Mercurio, and the Colombian business newspaper La Republica. In late 2018 Mr. Bernal was invited to be part of a group of five local and international pundits who will be part of the financial markets reform commission, one that will present the Colombian government with a blueprint on how to improve the efficiency of the local debt and equity markets.