Worldwide Women’s Association Recognizes Cecilia Rodriguez
Cecilia Rodríguez: Environmental Policy Leader, Entrepreneur, and Innovator Driving Sustainable Transformation in Colombia and Latin America
Cecilia Rodríguez is one of Colombia’s most influential environmental leaders, combining public service, entrepreneurship, and innovation to drive sustainable development across Latin America. A former Minister of Environment, Housing and Land Development of Colombia, former Senator, and former adviser to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Rodríguez is widely recognized for her ability to translate science, policy, and economics into actionable solutions that benefit communities, ecosystems, and economies.
She is the co-founder and Chairman of Corporación Bioparque, an environmental and social consultancy founded in 2004, now celebrating more than 20 years of continuous impact. Under her leadership, Bioparque has evolved beyond traditional compliance consulting, integrating technology-driven tools and human-centered design to help companies navigate complex environmental regulations while improving performance and accountability. Rodríguez’s hallmark strength lies in digesting dense regulatory frameworks, scientific models, and economic trends and converting them into clear, strategic insights for decision-makers.
Over the past two decades, Rodríguez has served as a trusted consultant and conflict-resolution specialist in numerous highly complex environmental and social cases for major corporations throughout Latin America, earning a reputation for collaborative leadership and results-oriented solutions.
During her tenure as Minister, Rodríguez led transformative reforms. She issued new national regulations for drinking water supply, sanitation, and domestic waste services, actively promoting recycling and reuse. She launched the Environmental Community Promoters program, empowering local leaders for environmental conservation across 600 municipalities. To strengthen institutional performance, she established new efficiency criteria to evaluate Colombia’s 32 regional environmental authorities and significantly improved environmental licensing response times.
A strong advocate for sustainable economic development, Rodríguez spearheaded the inclusion of tax incentives for environmental investments, including income tax exemptions for ecotourism and renewable energy projects, as part of Colombia’s 2002 national tax reform. Additional achievements include contributions to the current Colombian Lease Regime and reforms aimed at modernizing environmental governance.
Beyond government and consulting, Rodríguez is the founder and publisher of Catorce 6, a recognized independent environmental magazine. The publication has received seven national journalism awards and two additional recognitions for excellence in the dissemination of environmental knowledge. She has also served for two decades as a jury member for Corporate Social Responsibility awards and currently acts as an independent board member and Chair of the Corporate Governance and Sustainability Committee of a publicly traded Colombian multinational company.
Her experience also includes hands-on leadership in ecotourism, through a concession contract managing services in Isla de Salamanca National Park between 2010 and 2016.
Rodríguez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Universidad de los Andes, a specialization in Water Resources and Urban Water Sustainability, and is a certified trainer in negotiation and conflict resolution by Conflict Management Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts). She has completed executive studies in Innovation and Business Transformation at UC Berkeley (2016) and Strategy, Innovation, and Construction Technologies at Stanford University (2024). She is fluent in Spanish and English.
Milestone:
Cecilia Rodríguez is currently launching an AI-powered platform for compulsory environmental performance reporting. The platform is poised to disrupt the environmental consulting industry, redefining how companies measure, report, and improve environmental performance.
Cecilia Rodríguez continues to lead at the forefront of environmental governance, innovation, and sustainability—shaping solutions not only for compliance, but for lasting, systemic change.
Worldwide Women’s Association Member Cecilia Rodriguez is looking forward to networking with you.