Varela appoints energy czar

PANAMA’S troubled energy sector is to have a new leader with a mission “to drive the country’s energy policy, within the current constitutional framework.”

The President, Juan Carlos Varela, on Sunday, July 6 announced the appointment of Victor Carlos Urrutia Guard as National Secretary of Energy.
Urrutia Guard is an electrical engineer, a graduate of Purdue University, Indiana, United States. From April 2006 until August 2009 he served as administrator of the National Authority of Public Services.
He participated in the committee that prepared the draft of the law that created the regulatory and institutional framework for the provision of public service electricity Panama (Act No. 6 of 1997).
Urrutia Guard has served as an expert witness in arbitration proceedings related to the electrical sector and is a member of the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects.