Ramón L. Espinel holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Universidad de Guayaquil, Ecuador and a MS degree in Agricultural Economics from the Catholic University of Chile, Santiago. He obtained his PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Espinel is a Professor at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral ESPOL , in Guayaquil, Ecuador and Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He was Minister of Agriculture for the government of Ecuador and member of the Board of Directors at the International Monetary Fund. At ESPOL he was the Dean of the School of Life Sciences and currently he is the Director of the Institute for Rural Research.