Speakers

Joel Adrián Santos Echavarría graduated Magna Cum Laude in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).

He holds an MBA in International Business from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Arizona, which he earned as a Fulbright Scholar.

He participated in the development of the PRM Government Plan and, together with a team, coordinated a nationwide assessment of the tourism sector’s needs during the electoral campaign.

The current Minister of Energy and Mines served as General Manager of AFP Reservas from August 2020 and, simultaneously, as an honorary advisor to the Executive Branch on tourism matters. In June 2022, he was appointed Minister of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, a position he held until August 2024.

Since 2007, he served as Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Coral Hospitality Corp., a company dedicated to the management of hotels, tourist condominiums, and other tourism-related services under the brands Coral Hotels, Xeliter, and International Vacation Club. The company managed 35 properties, employed more than 1,500 people, and operated in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Jamaica.

He was also part of Grupo BHD for ten years, holding the positions of Vice President of Planning and New Business Development and Vice President of Finance for Coral Hotels and Resorts.

He worked in the financial sector with Citibank and in the telecommunications industry in marketing and finance roles at Codetel and Tricom.

For ten years, he dedicated part of his time to academia at PUCMM, where he taught Economics and Finance, as well as courses in the Corporate Finance Graduate Program.

Joel Santos Echavarría has played an active role as a board member in several business

organizations and associations, including the National Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores), the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE), and the Dominican Confederation of Employers (Copardom).