Andrés Velasco Brañes (; born August 30, 1960) is a Chilean economist and professor who served as Minister of Finance in the first government of President Michelle Bachelet from March 2006 to March 2010. He is currently the Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics. Early life and education The son of former radical politician Eugenio Velasco and lawyer Marta Brañes, Velasco was born in Santiago, where he lived until the age of 16. Following the exile of his father in 1977, the whole family moved to the US, first to Los Angeles and then to Boston. He finished his secondary school studies at Groton School, Groton, MA. He holds a PhD in economics from Columbia University. He took postdoctorate studies at Harvard University and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Earlier, he obtained his bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy at Yale University, and a master's degree in international relations at the same university. He is Sumitomo-FASID professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Early career Velasco served as director of New York University's Center for Latin-American and Caribbean Studies and assistant professor at Columbia University's Department of Economics and Public Affairs. He was Chile's Ministry of Finance Chief of Staff between 1990 and 1992, International Finance coordinator between 1992 and 1994, and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator in 1995. From 2000 to 2006, he was Sumitomo-FASID professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Between 2001 and February 2006 Velasco was an associate researcher at the Corporation for Latin-American Research (Cieplán) and president of the board of Corporación Expansiva. He was also a consultant for the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit's Government Round Tables, and for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Mexico and El Salvador. Political career Minister of Finance When the price of copper reached all-time highs in 2006, boosting government revenues, Velasco resisted intense political pressure from government workers and students to spend the windfall. Instead he opted to hold it in reserves equivalent to 30% of the country's GDP. The majority of this increase came from state-owned copper miner Codelco, whose profit contribution, in the form of taxes and dividends, provides approximately 13 percent of government revenues. The minister’s frugality enabled Chile to