Biographical Note
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs
Assistant Director-General for Policy, ILO
Mr. José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs is Assistant-Director General for Policy at the ILO since February,
2013, with oversight over a wide range of ILO issues including employment, enterprise development,
social protection, working conditions and research, as part of the Office of the Deputy Director General
for Policy, and a Member of the ILO Senior Management Team.
Before that and since August 2005 he was Executive Director for Employment with global responsibility
for the employment related work of the ILO in areas such as employment policy development;
sustainable enterprises; skills and employability; labour market analysis; employment services; labour
market information and trends; employment-intensive investments; social finance; informal economy;
trade and employment; green jobs; rural employment; youth employment; gender and employment;
disability; response to conflicts and disasters and employment recovery and Global Jobs Pact.
From 1998 to 2005 Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs was Director of the Office of Trade, Growth and
Competitiveness at the Organization of American States (OAS) supporting the countries of the Americas
in their negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
From 1997 to 1998 Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs was Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica a period that
included Costa Rica’s Chairmanship of the FTAA process. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Executive
Director of the Federation of Private Entities of Central America and Panama (FEDEPRICAP) and from
1990 to 1994, as the Federation’s Chief Economist. He was also a Member of the Board of Directors of
the Central Bank of Costa Rica from 1995 to 1997. From 1988 to 1990 he was Executive President of the
Costa Rican Development Corporation.
Mr. Salazar-Xirinachs has a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
He has taught at the Universities of Costa Rica; the National University of Heredia, Costa Rica;
Cambridge University, United Kingdom, England, and Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
He is the author of numerous journal articles on development, trade and competitiveness policies has
written and edited several books, including Towards Free Trade in the Americas (Brookings Institution,
2001), Promoting Sustainable Enterprises (ILO, 2008), Trade and Employment: From Myths to Facts (ILO,
2011). He was a member of the Advisory Panel for the 2010 Human Development Report (UNDP, New
York), a member of the Board of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
(Geneva) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Trade and Financial Architecture
Project chaired by President Ernesto Zedillo.