Rawi Abdelal

Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management, Harvard Business School

Rawi Abdelal is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and the Emma Bloomberg Co-Chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Professor Abdelal’s primary expertise is international political economy, and his research focuses on the politics of globalization and the political economy of Eurasia. Abdelal’s first book, National Purpose in the World Economy, won the 2002 Shulman Prize as the outstanding book on the international relations of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His second book, Capital Rules, explains the evolution of the social norms and legal rules of the international financial system. Abdelal has also edited or co-edited three books: The Rules of Globalization, a collection of Harvard Business School cases on international business; Measuring Identity; and Constructing the International Economy. Abdelal is currently at work on two projects. One project, The Fragile State of the World, explores the inter-related challenges that undermined the first era of globalization, circa 1870-1914, and which threaten to destroy the current age of global capitalism. The second project, The Profits of Power, explores the geopolitics of energy in Europe and Eurasia.

In 1999 Abdelal earned a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, where he had received an M.A. in 1997. At Cornell Abdelal’s dissertation won the Kahin Prize in International Relations and the Esman Prize. He was a President’s Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. with highest honors in Economics in 1993. Recent honors include Harvard Business School’s Greenhill Award, Apgar Award for innovation in teaching, and Williams Award for excellence in teaching, as well as, on several occasions, the Student Association’s Faculty Award for outstanding teaching.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta

Mayor of Buenos Aires

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was born in 1965 in the city of Buenos Aires and served as mayor from 2015 to 2023.

He holds a BA in economics from Universidad de Buenos Aires and a MBA from Harvard University. After completing his MBA, he returned to Argentina to pursue a career in politics. He was in charge of the Social Security System and of Arg IRS.

In 2002, he founded the PRO Party with Mauricio Macri. He was the Chief of Cabinet of the city when Macri was mayor (2007-2015).

In 2015, he was elected mayor of Buenos Aires. Under his leadership, the city underwent a remarkable transformation in terms of social integration, transport infrastructure, education, and security. He was re-elected in 2019 with a record 56% of the vote, becoming the first mayor in history to win in the first round. During a second term marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with other Argentine and international cities to confront the health crisis. The city’s evidence-based, comprehensive strategy to flatten the curve, care for citizens, and strengthen the health system was internationally recognized, and paved the way to a strong post-pandemic recovery.

In 2023, he ran as a presidential candidate with an agenda based on development, job creation, dialogue, and consensus.