Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”. President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, although the peace accord was narrowly rejected by a Colombian referendum.
In 1991 President Santos become Colombia’s first Minister of Foreign Trade and in 2005 he co-founded the Social Party of National Unity. He was elected President of Colombia in 2010. After attending the University of Kansas, President Santos studied for a Master of Science in the Department of Economics at LSE in 1975 and a Masters in Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School.
In 2011 President Santos gave an LSE public lecture, Leading Colombia towards Prosperity for All and in 2016 he returned to deliverThe Legacy of Peace.