Paula García Tufró is the former deputy director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center of the Atlantic Council. She most recently served as director for development and democracy at the National Security Council and brings nearly fifteen years of experience in foreign policy, global development, energy, trade, and investment.
In her White House role, she advised senior Obama administration officials on US foreign policy and global development policy and programs. In this role, she was responsible for coordinating US government policy positions and multilateral negotiations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development, which set forth a new 15-year global development agenda.
García Tufró also served as a member of the G20 negotiating team and was responsible for coordinating US engagement in the G20 Development Working Group, covering a range of issues including the 2030 agenda, infrastructure, domestic resource mobilization, food security and nutrition, financial inclusion, and global health. She also coordinated strategy and implementation of the Power Africa initiative, helped forge strategic partnerships with more than 140 public- and private-sector partners, and mobilized more than $54 billion in external commitments to support the goal of doubling access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
Paula García Tufró previously served in leadership roles at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Department of Commerce. As deputy chief of staff at OPIC, the US government’s development finance institution, she advised the president and CEO on agency management, strategy, and policy matters to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. As a member of the executive leadership team, she also managed day-to-day operations over the agency’s $20 billion investment portfolio in more than 100 countries.
Prior to joining the US government, García Tufró coordinated strategy and implementation of community development, youth, and advocacy initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean as program officer at Freedom House, and worked as international trade and corporate finance senior legal assistant at Arnold & Porter LLC.
García Tufró is co-chair of the development finance workgroup at the Society for International Development-Washington (SID-W).
García Tufró holds a master of science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, with a concentration on international development. She has a bachelor of arts degree in international affairs from James Madison University. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she speaks Spanish and French.