Omar Garcia-Bolivar is a public policy consultant and international lawyer with over 25 years of experience in drafting laws and designing regulatory reforms to foster competitiveness and encourage participation of the private sector in the economy. As an advisor to developing nations’ governments and to foreign investors he has direct knowledge of the needs of the stakeholders in both the public and private sectors.

Omar has advised on investment policy, investment negotiation strategies and investment treaties and has drafted more than 20 laws on business licensing, business restructuring, foreign investment, small business incentives and legal empowerment of the poor in many countries. In legal reform his main focus is:

• Business creation and operation;
• Business formalization;
• Dispute resolution.

Omar has also assisted investors in business and legal matters in Latin America. Prior to founding BG Consulting, Omar advised on Corporate Law matters for major corporations in Latin America through a Law Firm practice.  He has had a prominent exposure to international dispute resolutions. Omar has been an arbitrator before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He is also a member of the American Arbitration Association International Panel and is listed in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitrator Database. He is also a member of the Panama-Taiwan Trade Agreement Dispute Resolution. Omar is also an arbitrator with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC).

Under Pro Bono terms, Omar has advocated for the reform of the system of international protection of the Human Rights. In that regard and as representative of the Inter American Bar Association he has addressed the United Nations and the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States.

Omar was also Chair of the Inter-American Legal Affairs Committee of the International Law Section of the Washington, D.C. Bar Association. He is also a professional fellow of the Law Institute of the Americas at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and he is a member of the board of editors of Law and Business Review of the Americas. Omar has been a member of the Academic Network of the University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. He is associate editor of Transnational Dispute Management and is a member of the board of editors for Revista de Direito Internacional Economico e Tributario in Brazil. Mr. García-Bolívar was listed in the 2005 edition of Marquis Who’s Who in American Law. He is a lawyer admitted to practice in New York, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Court of International Trade and Venezuela.

Omar has also established himself as a prominent writer in the areas of international investment law, economic development and legal reform and business law. He has written several articles in different languages in different countries and has published 4 books, including Latin American Investment Protections. Ostensibly, he was a contributor to the United Nations report on Legal Empowerment of Poor. Omar’s recent writings focuses on non-confrontational dispute resolutions mechanisms, pinpointing to the win-win mindset and the deep questioning method to find areas of commonality. He is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer including universities such as University of Edinburgh, Harvard, Georgetown and Melbourne, among others. He has been interviewed by CNN in several occasions.

He is also an avid marathon runner and poet.

Omar holds an M. Phil and Ph.D studies from University of Edinburgh and LL.M from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.