[ON A LEAVE OF ABSENCE UP TO 2027]

Silverio Zebral Filho is a founder member of LAG—LATAM Advisory Group, a growing network of independent consultants and experts covering the Transatlantic Triangle: the US, Europe, and Latin America.

Mr. Zebral Filho is a development economist, behavioral scientist, political manager, and corporate diplomat who helps multinational corporations, national governments, and societal groups design and implement evidence-based, user-centered, behavioral-informed, fiscal-responsible, innovative, and effective public-private alliances, development projects, and policy initiatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Since 2009, Mr. Zebral Filho has served as the Head of the Governance Unit at the Organization of American States (OAS) and as Academic Director for the Advanced Program on Economics, Politics, and Public Policy in Latin America (APEPP) at The George Washington University, both headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA. Before joining the OAS, he has made a career as a senior development economist at Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), as an executive coordinator of the Center for Studies on State Reform at Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), and as a junior researcher at Genesis Institute at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC -Rio) in Brazil – among other professional assignments.

Since 1998, Silverio has served as an ad hoc advisor, observer, and program manager for development banks and agencies (including the UNDP, IDB, AECID, and EU), and international political foundations (such as IRI, KAS, and ODCA). In these capacities, he led over 70 technical and political field missions in support of over 30 governments in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, focusing on economic development, pro-market reforms, public-private partnerships, democratic governance, strengthening political parties, and policy innovation.

Mr. Zebral Filho has also been consulting on an ad-hoc basis for global companies (Shell, Vodafone, Roche) and helping senior and mid-career executives from business associations in Brazil (AMCHAM, CNI, and CNA) to improve their leadership skills on corporate diplomacy, scenario building, negotiation, influence, communication, innovation, decision making, and crisis/change management. Mr. Zebral has served on several business association committees, including those of the Brazilian Industrial Federation (CNI), the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), the Rio de Janeiro Industrial Federation (FIRJAN), and the Rio de Janeiro Chamber of Commerce (ACRJ), among others.

Silverio is an affiliated faculty at several graduate-level programs on economics, political science, government, and public affairs across the Americas, Europe and Latin America, such as: Georgetown University and The Ostrom Workshop of Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University at Bloomington (USA), IE Unversity and Ortega y Gasset Instiute (Spain), Insper and Dom Cabral Foundation (Brazil), and IESA (Venezuela), among others. More than 2,000 LATAM public and private sector leaders from over 30 countries in Europe, Latin America, and Africa have participated in Mr. Zebral Filho’s leadership development training, workshops, and individual mentoring sessions since 2003 – including the chiefs of the Shipibo tribe in the Peruvian Amazon, the Iraq National Police, female candidates to Congress in Mozambique, and the Venezuelan youth diaspora in exile.

Economist and political scientist by training, Mr. Zebral Filho holds a MAS in Development Studies at The Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies – IHEID (Geneva, Switzerland), a MPS in Political Management at The George Washington University – GWU (Washington-DC, USA), an MBA in Advanced Global Management at IE Business School – IE (Madrid, Spain), a Magister Artium in Political Philosophy at Francisco Marroquín University – UFM (Guatemala), an Executive Master in International Organizations Managememt at SDA Bocconi (Milan, Italy), a MSc. in Global Security at King’s College London  (ongoing) and a  MA. in International Public Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies – SAIS/JHU (Washington-DC, USA). He completed additional graduate-level studies in international economics at Columbia University, negotiation and conflict mediation at Harvard-MIT PON Consortium, behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and decision-making under uncertainty at the RAND Corporation. Silveiro took his diplomatic training at the United Nations University’s International Leadership Academy (Aman, Jordan), and at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and international teaching training at INSEAD. He is working toward a PhD in Political Economy and Public Policy at The Vinson Center for Classical Political Economy, a research center based at the University of Buckingham in the UK, which focuses on promoting understanding and research in classical liberal and free market economic thought.

Mr. Zebral Filho is a former AILA (non-resident) fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a GLS fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for Study of Diplomacy, a G20 Global fellow at KDI School of Public Policy and Management in Seoul, South Korea, an associate member of The HM Royal Institute for International Affairs (The Chatham House) in London, UK and a vanguard member at The Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows (Aspen-CO, USA). He is a recipient of the prestigious Eisenhower Global Fellowship (Philadelphia, 2018), the Hoover Institution International Seminar Fellow (Stanford, 2023), the Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship for Latino Scholars (Santa Monica, 2024), and the Ronald Coase Fellowship at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center (Fairfax, 2025), among several other recognitions. He is currently serving as a fellow at The Leadership and Society Initiative at the University of Chicago.

Silverio is the author of 3 books and more than 40 scholarly papers on international political economy, governance, corporate diplomacy, and business development (some available at Academia.edu). His articles have appeared at America Economía, El País (Spain), O Globo, O Estado de São Paulo, and Exame (Brazil).

Mr. Zebral Filho is a 54-year-old Brazilian/Italian citizen living in Washington, DC, after spending some years in Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Geneva, and Hanoi. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.