Arturo Valenzuela is Senior Advisor for Latin America at Covington. His clients have included Fortune 500 firms and leading Latin American multinationals. In President Obama's first term, Dr. Valenzuela, was Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere in the US Department of State. He headed the office of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House in President Clinton's second term, and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in Charge of US Mexico relations in Clinton's first term. A prominent scholar, he directed the Council of Latin American Studies at Duke University before moving to Georgetown where he founded and directed the Center for Latin American Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.