Ramon Escobar

Senior Visiting Fellow | Refugee Investment Network
Ramon is a Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Investment Network with a focus on Latin America. Ramon is also Founder and CEO of Chufly, an international social impact wine company.
Ramon is a 15-year foreign policy veteran with experience as a Foreign Service Officer at the State Department, an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a lecturer at Georgetown University and University of Maryland.
During his 2020-2021 fellowship with CFR, Ramon researched the role of private investment in irregular migration from Central America. Ramon conducted dozens of interviews with Central American migrants and asylum seekers, regional leaders of international organizations, policy officials, regional business leaders, and international investors. Ramon briefed U.S. officials on the findings of his research.
Prior to the CFR, Ramon was an economic officer with the U.S. Department of State where he worked on issues related to economic policy, international trade, and the investment climate for U.S. firms. Ramon’s diplomatic career spanned the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America.
Ramon’s participation in the peace negotiations with the FARC guerrillas as well as his work advocating for U.S. investors in Mexico helped shape his view that private investment is key to driving sustainable socioeconomic development.
Ramon leveraged his academic and deep international affairs experience to found Chufly, a wine and spirits company dedicated to driving durable socioeconomic development in lesser-known countries.
Ramon holds a dual Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and Sciences Politiques and a Bachelors in Marketing from UWM. Ramon speaks fluent Spanish and French, and basic Arabic. He was born to a Bolivian father and an American mother in Milwaukee, WI.
He lives in the Washington, DC area. Ramon is married to Samia Yakub and has two beautiful boys, Laith and Kais.