Luis Alberto Cuéllar

Regional Technical Advisor, Latin America

Luis Alberto Cuéllar is the regional technical advisor for ACDI/VOCA's Latin America coffee initiatives. He is responsible for proposal development for the specialty coffee projects and manages relations with partners in industry, governments and farmer organizations. Mr. Cuéllar has over 25 years of experience working in rural development programs focused on agricultural cooperatives and rural communities. He has particular expertise in agricultural and agribusiness projects involving agricultural cooperatives in Colombia, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Expert in coffee value chains and enterprise and business development, Mr. Cuéllar was chief of party of ACDI/VOCA’s USAID Specialty Coffee Program 2002–2008 in Colombia, where he also served as country representative. He has hands-on coffee value chain experience from various coffee development projects, garnering strong contacts within U.S. market niches and commercial promotion. Mr. Cuéllar has project management experience in the private sector as a coffee cooperative manager and as a national advisor for coffee co-ops. He has also served in the public sector working for the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and the International Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (in Spanish, Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura, or IICA). Mr. Cuéllar earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Universidad La Gran in Colombia and two master’s of science degrees, one in private finance at Universidad del Rosario in Colombia and one in agricultural cooperatives and rural development from the Center of International Professional and Technical Improvement in Turin, Italy. He speaks native Spanish and is fluent in English and Portuguese.