Prior to serving as Mexico’s ambassador to Canada (2016-2017) and France (2013-2016), García-López was Permanent Representative of Mexico to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2007-2013. At these posts, he promoted international cooperation to improve Mexico’s public policies, a goal he also pursued in the realm of finance from 2000-2007 while serving on the Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation representing Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
A member of the Mexican Foreign Service since 1991, he has worked in various areas of the Foreign Ministry dedicated to strengthening international cooperation: first, as adviser to the Foreign Secretary and in the Directorate-General for Economic Affairs (1986-1988); then as head of economic affairs at the Mexican embassy to the United Kingdom (1989-1992); and subsequently as Director General of Economic and Development Cooperation Agencies (1995-2000). In addition, he was commissioned by the Mexican Foreign Ministry to the Finance Ministry to direct financial affairs with North America, the Caribbean and the Pacific from 1993 to 1995, and international policy in 2000. He helped create the predecessor of AMEXCID, the Mexican Institute for International Cooperation, to build a system to coordinate and give impetus to international development cooperation.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Columbia University (New York, USA) and has given classes in the economics departments of the national university (UNAM) and the Iberoamericana University; and in the graduate department for international relations at the UNAM Acatlán School of Higher Studies (FES Acatlán). He has also given talks as part of the master’s degree program in diplomatic studies at the Matías Romero Institute (IMR).
He has published articles on foreign policy, including: “México y la OCDE, quince años de transformaciones” [Mexico and the OECD: Fifteen Years of Transformation] and with Gerardo Bracho, “La reforma de la cooperación mexicana” [Reform of Mexican Cooperation] in Cuadernos de Política Internacional [International Policy Papers] 17-2009, IMR; and “La cooperación económica y para el desarrollo” [Economic and Development Cooperation] in La nueva política mexicana de cooperación internacional [The New Mexican International Cooperation Policy], SRE, 1999.
Agustín García-López became AMEXCID Executive Director on May 11, 2017.