International Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)

Executive Director, Ibero-American Futurists Network (RIBER)

Cordeiro was born in Caracas, Venezuela from Spanish parents who emigrated from Madrid during the Franco dictatorship.

He obtained Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. He subsequently studied International Economics and Comparative Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, USA, and obtained a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France, majoring in Finance and Globalization. He started his doctoral degree at MIT, continued these studies in Tokyo, Japan, and in due course received his PhD at Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB) in Caracas, Venezuela. After graduating, Cordeiro worked as a petroleum exploration engineer for Schlumberger. He next served as an advisor for many major oil companies, including BP,  ChevronTexaco,  ExxonMobil, PDVSA, Pemex, Petrobras, Shell and Total.

Cordeiro has been an advocate of sound monetary policy and dollarization in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

His 1999 book La Segunda Muerte de Sucre provided academic backing for the change from the sucre to the dollar as the currency in Ecuador, where he is regarded as one of the thought leaders of this transformation.