President of Promigás, Colombia, Keynote Speaker at Latin American Business History Conference

Mr. Antonio Celia, CEO of Promigás, the leading natural gas company in Colombia, delivered the Keynote Speech at the Latin American Business History international conference that took place in Brasenose College on 27-8 April.  Based on his personal experience in Promigás, Mr. Celia offered a history of the company in the context of Colombia’s past, highlighting its major contributions to the country’s economy and society.  He stressed the significance of social entrepreneurship for the development and sustainability of capitalism.  The conference gathered a group of international scholars who discussed their work on the business history of the region during the XIXth and XXth centuries, including papers on the Venezuelan oil industry; the Colombian Coffee Federation; women on company boards; the banking system; family networks; and the relationship between business groups, governments and foreign capital. 

The programme included papers by Rory Miller (Liverpool, UK), Matias Braun (Adolfo Ibánez, Chile), Brian McBeth (LAC, UK), Marcelo Bucheli (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA), Erica Salvaj (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile), Martin Monsalve (Universidad del Pacífico, Perú), Sebastián Alvarez (University of Genève, Switzerland)), and Aldo Musacchio (Brandeis, USA).  The conference was convened by Christopher McKenna (co-director of the Oxford History of Global Capitalism Project), Matias Braun (Director of the doctoral programme in finances of the Business School at the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile), and Eduardo Posada-Carbó (convener of the Latin American History Seminar in Oxford).