Jamil Mahuad Witt (Doctor in Law, Catholic University of Ecuador, 1975; Master in Public Administration, Harvard Kennedy School, 1989) was President of Ecuador (1998 -2000) finishing a career of nearly 20 years in Ecuadorian politics, which included two terms as Mayor of Quito (1992 – 1998) and two terms as Member of Congress.

President Mahuad is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee (1999) for signing a final peace treaty with Peru, which, in the words of President William Clinton, “solved the oldest source of international armed conflict in this Hemisphere.” The World Wildlife Fund conceded President Mahuad’s government the “Gift to the Earth” award (1999) for its decisive policies to protect the Ecuadorian Environment.

President Mahuad has served on the board of several international organizations: Co-Director of the Project on the Prevention of Global Violence, part of the Harvard Institute on Global Health (HIGH), under the office of the President of Harvard University. (2009-present); Co-founder and Senior Adviser of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, at Harvard Law School (2004-Present); Senior Director of CMI International (2012); Board Member of the Abraham Path Initiative (2008-present), and the Medici Summit: Where Business and Innovation Intersects (2008-present) and Member of Global Advisory Council of Mediators Beyond Borders (2009-present).

President Mahuad has been a visiting professor and lecturer at many top schools like Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Tokyo, Monterrey Tech, MIT, Columbia, Notre Dame, US Army War College, Saint Gallen, American University of Beirut, Babson College and the Fletcher School of Diplomacy. From a geographical point of view has participated in events as far afield as the Keio University in Tokyo, Geneva School of Diplomacy, U.S. Virgin Islands (Saint Croix), Puebla (Mexico), Salta (Argentina), George Washington and George Mason (Washington DC) and the University of Helsinki (Finland).

Besides his academic activities, President Mahuad lectures, offers consulting and coaching on personal growth techniques, negotiation, leadership and the challenges facing struggling democracies in the age of globalization. His most recent presentations include lectures and workshops for the World Bank, the Centro Fox (Mexico), the Third European Conference for Mediators (London), the Meeting of Transformational Thinkers Reunion (Berlin), the Annual Meeting of Arab Harvard Alumni (Doha), the International Forum on Migration and Peace (Guatemala), Lebanon 2020 (Beirut), the American College of Neurological Surgeons and the Symposium of Cardiovascular Medicine, Virginia (Washington DC), the Ombudsman (Buenos Aires), Annual Summit Women in Leadership Positions (Linkage, Chicago) and the World Congress of Psychiatry (Buenos Aires).
A very special feature of President Mahuad’s presentations is that they blend theoretical and practical perspectives like few in the world. By combining essential theories in the field of negotiation based in books like Getting to Yes and Beyond Reason, (where he’ is a contributing author) with his deep and unique personal leadership experiences, he demonstrates how to effectively “negotiate as a leader and lead as a negotiator” by using rational clarity and emotional control.