Prior to his tenure at the FUNGLODE Foundation, Mr. Martinez served as founding Executive Director of the Dominican Republic’s Office for the Promotion of Foreign Investment (OPI) (precursor of CEI-RD), where he vigorously promoted policy changes and modernization efforts to help transition the Dominican Republic from a predominantly agricultural and light manufacturing-based economy towards higher value-added, service-oriented enterprises. He successfully championed CyberPark/ITLA, the Dominican Republic’s first entirely science-and-technology industrial and educational project, Mr. Martinez has also served as the Executive Director for the Association of Free Zones in the Dominican Republic (ADOZONA), was an Economic Advisor to the Technical Ministry of the Presidency focusing on international trade and investment, and spent six years with the Dominican Republic Center for the Promotion of Exports (CEDOPEX) (now merged into CEI-RD), holding positions both in the Dominican Republic and in New York. Mr. Martinez’s academic background includes a Masters of Arts in Economic Development and International Relations and a Bachelor of Economics and has had extensive training in the area of Direct Foreign Investment from institutions such as IDI in Ireland, MIGA, TSG and the promotion agencies of Chile and Argentina, among others.  He has written and published many articles and research papers and has made many presentations on the subject of economic development and the international competitiveness of the Dominican Republic.