About

This profile was current as of 2019, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.

Claudio Orrego is a Chilean lawyer, politician, academic and international consultant and a spring 2019 Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. 

He has held a number of public sector offices related to urban issues and state modernization. As minister of housing, he designed a national policy on urban development and worked to promote better standards for subsidized housing. As head of the State Modernization Commission, he gained national recognition for promoting digital governance initiatives that addressed systems including the tax filing process and the application of housing subsidies. 

Orrego served two terms as mayor of Peñalolén, one of the largest and most diverse municipalities in Chile, and was twice recognized as best mayor by his peers. He also served as governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, home to 43 percent of the country’s population. During his four-year term, he helped develop a strategy for sustainable transportation, the growth of urban parks, and plans for clean air and recycling. He also helped design and implement a new legal framework for regional and metropolitan elected governments. 

Orrego is a leader of Chile’s Christian-Democrat Party and was its presidential candidate in 2013.

While at Kellogg, Orrego will study governance and the challenges facing public leaders in an increasingly urban world, such as crime, affordable housing, climate change, immigration, and social cohesion. He will also address issues related to democracy, governance, and urbanization, including whether liberal democracy will be weakened or strengthened as cities grow and whether traditional municipal governments should be redesigned to cope with present-day challenges. In collaboration with the Keough School of Global Affairs, he will contribute to courses offered by the school.

He has been a professor at Catholic University, the University of Chile, and Adolfo Ibañez University. 

Orrego holds a law degree from the Catholic University of Chile and a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Countries
Regions
Research Tags