Felipe Targa is the Infrastructure Program Leader at the World Bank for the Andean countries since July 2024. Felipe joined the World Bank in 2014 as Senior Urban Transport Specialist for the Latin America and Caribbean region from the headquarters in Washington DC. There he worked in different countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, Peru, Chile and Bolivia. He is currently co-leader of the World Bank's Community of Practice in Active Mobility. In 2022 he received the United Nations World Bicycle Day award for his leadership in the global promotion of cycling for all. He was Colombia's Vice Minister of Transport (2010-12), when he led reforms and projects in multimodal freight and passenger transport, a national road safety plan, intelligent transport systems regulations, and adoption of international climate commitments in the transport sector.
Prior to joining the World Bank, he founded and directed the CityLab initiative at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia (2012-14), a multidisciplinary consulting center drawing from academic research to support innovation in the planning and design of green and equitable urban transport and public space infrastructures. He worked for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC as Senior Transportation Specialist (2003-10), at the National Planning Department (DNP) of Colombia as urban transport advisor (1998-2001), academic research centers in the US, and has been a consultant for NGOs and think tanks. Felipe is a civil engineer, holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of North Carolina, and advanced to Ph.D. Candidate in Transportation Systems at the University of Maryland.
