The Calvin College Department of Economics and Business will host Augusto de la Torre (left) on Thursday April 27 at 3:30 p.m. in the Chapel Undercroft. 
His topic will be "Preventing Financial Crises in Emerging Market Countries." 
The lecture is free and open to the public thanks, in part, to a grant to Calvin from the Ford Motor Company. 
Augusto de la Torre has worked for The World Bank since October 1997. He is the Financial Sector Manager, Latin America and the Caribbean Region. In that capacity he provides technical advice and leadership to World Bank financial sector operations in the Latin American and the Caribbean Region with the goal being to create safer, sounder, more diversified, and less vulnerable financial systems. 
de la Torre earned his master's and Ph.D. degree at Notre Dame (where he got to know several Calvin professors also doing post-graduate work).
He managed the Central Bank of Ecuador prior to joining the World Bank. 
While in Ecuador he was named by Euromoney Magazine the "Best Latin Central Banker" for the year 1996. While with the Central Bank of Ecuador he represented Ecuador in international conferences and seminars and in negotiations with multilateral institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
He led the strategic and policy decision-making process regarding Ecuador's debt-reduction agreement with international commercial bank creditors (concluded early 1995). During his administration, inflation was reduced from 60% per year to 25%. Inflation was kept around 25% during 1995-96 despite severe shocks (military conflict with Perú, prolonged energy crisis, political crises, and complications of transition to a new government). 
From 1986 to 1992 he was an Economist with the International Monetary Fund.