Roberto Dañino

Roberto Dañino
Born	(1951-03-02) March 2, 1951 Peru
Occupation(s)	Attorney, politician, diplomat
Years active	1980s–present
Known for	Prime Minister of Peru, Ambassador to the United States, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at the World Bank
Notable work	Negotiation of Acuerdo Nacional, leadership at ICSID

Roberto Dañino (born March 2, 1951) is a distinguished Peruvian attorney and former Prime Minister of Peru. He has also held the position of Peruvian Ambassador to the United States and served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at The World Bank. With extensive expertise in corporate law, he led the Latin American division at leading law firms based in both the United States and Peru. Dañino has been a board member for numerous corporations and nonprofit organizations spanning Peru, the US, Canada, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Presently, he participates on multiple corporate and charitable boards in Peru and the US, while also contributing to international advisory panels such as those of Goldman Sachs, NTT Data, Albright Stonebridge Group, and Inversiones Centenario. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the Order of the Sun of Peru (Gran Cruz), the highest civilian distinction in Peru, in 2003.

Education

Dañino obtained his law degrees from both Harvard Law School and the Catholic University of Peru, in addition to completing the International Leadership Program at Georgetown University.

Public service

In 2001, Dañino was appointed as Prime Minister of Peru—a role that, unlike in many countries, is designated by the President and must be confirmed by Congress. During his administration, he spearheaded negotiations for the Acuerdo Nacional, an agreement that brought together major political factions and civil society groups to establish thirty long-term public policies intended to guide governance for two decades. This pact was finalized on July 22, 2002, shortly after Dañino stepped down to assume the role of Peru’s Ambassador to the United States. The Acuerdo Nacional continues to influence policy stability and regulatory certainty for private investment in Peru. As Ambassador, Dañino concentrated on advancing a Bilateral Free Trade Agreement between Peru and the US, which was eventually implemented under Alan Garcia’s presidency. He left this diplomatic post in 2003 to take up leadership roles as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at the World Bank and as Secretary General of ICSID.

Following Fernando Belaunde’s re-election as President in 1980 after eleven years of military rule, then-Prime Minister Manuel Ulloa appointed 29-year-old Dañino as Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Trade. Ulloa subsequently expanded his responsibilities by naming him President of the Foreign Investment Committee (CONITE), Chairman of the Public Debt Commission, and Director of CONASEV—the securities market regulator. This team was instrumental in initiating one of Latin America’s pioneering efforts toward market liberalization. However, challenges such as the Mexico debt crisis, Shining Path insurgency, and internal political disputes led to Ulloa’s administration resigning in December 1982. Although his successor tried to continue economic reforms, President Belaunde dismissed him; Peru then endured a prolonged period marked by political instability and economic hardship. While Ulloa became Senate President, Dañino returned to legal practice first in Lima and later in the United States.

Professional career

Prior to his government service, Dañino practiced law with Barrios, Fuentes & Urquiaga in Peru. In 1989, he was appointed as the inaugural General Counsel for the InterAmerican Investment Corporation (now BID Invest), which serves as the private sector arm of the InterAmerican Development Bank headquartered in Washington, D.C. After leaving IIC in 1993, he joined Rogers and Wells law firm in New York before transitioning in 1996 with his Latin American team to Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (currently Wilmer Hale), where he became an equity partner and chaired their Latin American Practice Group. He departed from private practice in 2001 to serve within the Peruvian government.

In 2003, following his tenure as Ambassador to the US, Dañino assumed roles as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at the World Bank Group. There he championed initiatives to incorporate human rights considerations into the Bank’s strategic framework and acted as Secretary-General for the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), providing counsel to its Board of Directors and Ethics Committee.

That same year marked several honors: he received Peru's highest accolade—the Order of the Sun (Gran Cruz)—alongside Spain’s Orden de Isabel la Catolica and a Distinguished Alumnus Medal from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In 2004, he became the first Peruvian awarded by the American Foreign Law Association.

Dañino exited the World Bank in 2006 to become Deputy Chairman at Hochschild Mining plc., notable for being the first Latin American company in over a century listed on the London Stock Exchange. He also held Deputy Chairman responsibilities at Cementos Pacasmayo during its New York Stock Exchange listing (CPAC) and chaired Fosfatos del Pacífico (FOSPAC), a joint venture between Pacasmayo and Mitsubishi Corporation.

Currently, he serves on boards including NTT Data, AFP Integra, and Inversiones Centenario. Additionally, he acts as Regional Advisor for Goldman Sachs and Albright Stonebridge Group.

His philanthropic involvement encompasses organizations such as Transparencia, Fundación Internacional para la Libertad (FIL), Human Rights Watch, and MALI (the Art Museum of Lima). He has also contributed governance expertise to ACCION International, LUMNI (Perú), Results for Development Institute (R4D), and Youth Orchestra of the Americas.