Mercedes Aráoz is a Professor of International Economics and Public Policy at Universidad del Pacifico, Lima, Peru. Currently, she is a member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Trust and a member of Friends of Multilateralism Group.

She has been Vice-President and member of the Parliament and Prime Minister of Peru. Other previous government positions held in her home country are: Minister of Finance, Minister of Production and Minister of Trade and Tourism, Executive Director of the Competitiveness Council and Member of the Antidumping and Countervailing Duties Committee at INDECOPI. She has been Representative of the Interamerican Development Bank in Mexico.

Currently, she is participating as part of the leadership team of UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), Action Track 4: Advance Equitable Livelihoods. Before, she was member of the UN Leading Group of Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) and had led the Global Initiative Food Forever.

She is an economist, graduating from Universidad del Pacifico, and has a master’s degree and doctoral studies from University of Miami. She has a long career in Academia as professor and researcher in areas like international trade policy and negotiations, and development and competitiveness public policy. She is professor of Economics at the School of Public Management and the Faculty of Economics of Universidad del Pacifico, where she teaches at the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as at the Diplomatic Academy of Peru.

She has received two “Doctor Honoris Causa” degrees, one by Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón in Lima and the other one by Universidad Nacional San Agustin in Arequipa, Peru.