Karen Poniachik

Karen Poniachik is the Director of the Columbia Global Centers | South America based in Santiago, Chile. She was Chile’s Minister of Mining between 2006 and 2008, a time during which she chaired the boards of directors of state-owned companies Codelco, Enap and Enami. From March 2006 to March 2007, she also served as Minister of Energy. Currently, she is a member of the corporate boards of directors of E.CL, British American Tobacco Chile, Terpel-Chile and Maersk Container Industries San Antonio as well as the Chilean-American Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Poniachik was Chile’s Special Envoy to the OECD in charge of the country’s accession process to the Organization, which was successfully completed in January of 2010. Previously, she served as Executive Vice-President of Chile’s Foreign Investment Committee (2000-2006); and as Director of Business and Financial Programs at the Council of the Americas in New York (1995-2000).

Karen Poniachik graduated as a journalist from Universidad Católica de Chile (1987) and holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University (1990).