President Juan Manuel Santos has appointed a new ambassador to the People’s Republic of China in a ceremony Thursday, according to a presidential communique.
Carlos Ignacio Urrea Arbalaez from Medellin has spent 23 years as the international president, export manager and commercial vice president of Leonisa, a lingerie company which has entered the Chinese market.
President Santos, who called China “a motor in the world economy,” said that if Urrea “could do half of what he did with a big company like Leonisa … we will be very satisfied.”
Urrea has a Master’s in International Business from the IE Business School in Spain, according to Colombian financial magazine Dinero.
The outgoing ambassador is Guillermo Velez, who resigned in March after seven years in the role.
President Santos is due to visit China in September of this year.
