Horacio Álvarez Marinelli is a senior education specialist. He joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in July 2008 and is currently working at the IDB Country Office in Panama. Before being assigned to Panama, he was in charge of the education portfolios of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. Horacio served as Financial Director of the Programa Nacional de Autogestión para el Desarrollo Educativo of the Ministry of Education of Guatemala. He has also served as Officer in Charge of Finance and Accounting and Secretary of the Pension Fund of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Subsequently, from 2004 to 2008, he was Advisor to the Office of the Minister of Education, in charge of the modernization of the Planning and Finance Area and Director of Educational Planning of the Ministry of Education of Guatemala. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Administration and Public Policy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, under the auspices of the Fullbright scholarship.