NEW YORK — Georgetown University named Alejandro Werner, a former director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund, as founding director of a new Georgetown Americas Institute, the educational entity announced on its website.

Formally at the helm of GAI in January 2022, Mr. Werner will lead a university-wide platform for dialogue, research, and impact around the key challenges facing Latin America and the hemisphere, according to the statement.

“I look forward to working with Georgetown faculty, students, and administrators to connect and strengthen our engagement across the Americas,” Werner said in the announcement. “The Georgetown Americas Institute is ideally positioned to build knowledge and address concrete policy challenges in the region.”

Mr. Werner assumed the position as Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund in January 2013 and officially retired August 31, 2021. He served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico from December 2006 until August 2010; was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid Spain from August 2010 until July 2011, and Head of Corporate and Investment banking at BBVA-Bancomer from August 2011 until end-2012.

Mr. Werner was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Mr. Werner received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.