Jorge Luis Burgos

Jorge Luis Burgos is an Industrial Engineer, graduated from the Technological University of Panama (Universidad Tecnológica de Panama, Panama City, Panama), with a MBA from INCAE Business School (Founded in 1964 with the technical supervision of the Harvard Business School. Since then, Harvard provides support in the academic field). He has also actively participated in executive programs such as the Business Administration International Program at IE Business School (Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain) and Developing Managerial Effectiveness Program in Penn State University (Pennsylvania, USA). Jorge Luis used to be a Part Time Professor, teaching the subjects of Statistics, Operations Research and Research Methodology, and was the Industrial Engineering Faculty Council Representative at Technological University of Panama (Elected by the school faculty). Jorge Luis is the founder Executive Director of Junior Achievement of Panama (1997), and has been with the organization for 29 years. The purpose of Junior Achievement in Panama (JA Panama) is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a Global Economy, educating and instilling values to pursue their development. The organization achieves these objectives through Junior Achievement’s hands-on, experiential programs that teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial health; these programs are taught in participating schools, where professionals from member companies contribute as advisers to students from 5 to 24 years old. During his tenure, JA Panama has reached more than 286,772 beneficiaries, from more than 300 schools, in the 10 provinces of the Republic of Panama through 30 educational programs; and thanks to the collaboration of 12,580 Classroom Advisors; in a country that has around 4.3 million inhabitants. Through the years, the organization has developed a successful relationship with more than 80 national and international renowned Companies. And also with the Peace Corps, 3 Universities, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economics and Finance and AMPYME. Since 1997, when Junior Achievement of Panama was established, Jorge Luis and the organization have received many honors including the Platinum Individual Achievement Award and the Media Award from Junior Achievement Worldwide and was finalist for the Fuqua Global Excellence Award and the Bata Lifetime Achievement Award. Junior Achievement of Panama was also a finalist for Innovation Award for its program “Our Canal and its Basin”, and one of the finalists for the Growth Award. From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Burgos was one of the Americas’ representatives at the JA Worldwide’s “Member Council” and its Co-Chair (The Member Council used to have twelve worldwide representatives). At the local level, the organization has received honors as well, including an award from COSPAE (Private Sector Council for Educational Assistance) in recognition of the work done through “Social Investment in Education.” As of today, Jorge Luis is has been the representative of Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and the Host of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) for the Republic of Panama since 2012. Is also a founder member of the National Entrepreneurship Council and representative/President of its Education axis.