Jorge Colberg Toro

Jorge Colberg Toro
At-Large Member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives
In office
February 26, 2003 – January 26, 2013
Succeeded by Luisa Gándara
Personal details
Born (1965-10-07) October 7, 1965
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Political party Popular Democratic Party (PPD)
Children Jorge Ernesto
Daniel Felipe
Alma mater Interamerican University, Metro Campus

Jorge Colberg Toro (born October 7, 1965) is a Puerto Rican politician. He served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013. He also was Secretary for Public Affairs for the former governors Sila M. Calderon and Alejandro García Padilla and Secretary General of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP). Currently, he is a political, legislative and government consultant, a speechwriter and a political analyst.

Early years and studies

Jorge Colberg Toro was born on October 7, 1965 in Río Piedras. His parents are Severo Colberg Ramírez, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Eva Toro Franquiz, a college professor and former Student Dean at the University of Puerto Rico. His older brother, Severo, was also a member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2004.[1]

Colberg Toro completed his elementary and high school at the University High School (UHS) of the University of Puerto Rico. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Political Science Magna Cum Laude (GPA 3.85) from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico at Metro Campus. He also participated in a summer program on Political Science for Public Officials and Advisors at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Colberg also obtained a Government and Public Administration Master's degree at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico (4.0 GPA -Summa Cum Laude)

Political career

From 1989 to 1996, Colberg Toro served as Special Advisor, Director of Programming and Press Secretary of then-Mayor of San Juan, Héctor Luis Acevedo. Because of his work, he received the Felisa Rincón de Gautier Award for distinguished public servant in 1995. The next year, he was appointed as Press Secretary for the Popular Democratic Party (PDP). He also worked as adviser in communications from 1997 to 2001.

In 2001, Colberg was appointed Director of the Public Integrity Commission of the Senate of Puerto Rico, and Executive Director of the Joint Commission on the Comptroller's Special Reports. That summer, Colberg also served as Public Affairs Adviser for Governor Sila M. Calderón. In November 2001, Calderón also appointed Colberg as Secretary General of the PDP. She also named him as Secretary of Public Affairs for the Government in 2002.

In January 2003, Colberg was called to fill a vacancy at the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. He was sworn in February 26, 2003. During that term, he presided the Commission of Public Integrity, among others.

In 2003, Colberg Toro officially ran for Representative at the PDP primaries, and was the second candidate with most votes.[2] He was elected in 2004 as a Representative At-large with 134,334 votes. Colberg was reelected again in 2008 and 2012.[3][4]

In January 9, 2013, Governor Alejandro García Padilla announced that Colberg would serve as Secretary of Public Affairs, thus relinquishing his seat in the House of Representatives.[5] His resignation was effective on January 26, 2013. After two years in office, on July 1, 2015 Governor Garcia-Padilla appointed Colberg, for second time, as Secretary General of the PDP.

Colberg is the only person who occupied both position: Secretary General of the Popular Democratic Party and Public Affairs Secretary of the Governor of Puerto Rico, under two different administrations with governors: Sila M. Calderon and Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Since January 2017, Colberg is in private sector as a political, legislative and government affairs consultant. He also is a speechwriter, communication consultant and strategist. He host a radio program with NotiUno Radio Group as a political and government analyst. Colberg wrote two books, the first one, "Agenda de Cambios" (Agenda for Change) about political history of the PDP and "Pacto de Futuro" (Compact for the Future) about the future of the Commonwealth as the best political option for the people of Puerto Rico. Colberg also is a featured columnist for El Nuevo Dia newspaper, the main publishing media in Puerto Rico.

[6]

Personal life

Colberg and wife Ivonne Vilanova have two sons: Jorge Ernesto (22) a Law School student and Daniel Felipe (20) a college student at University of Puerto Rico.

References

  1. ↑ Elecciones Generales de 1992, 1996, 2000 on CEEPUR
  2. ↑ Primarias 2003: Representantes por Acumulación Archived 2008-11-28 at the Wayback Machine. on CEEPUR
  3. ↑ Elecciones Generales 2004: Representantes por Acumulación Archived 2011-10-09 at the Wayback Machine. on CEEPUR
  4. ↑ Elecciones Generales 2008: Representantes por Acumulación Archived 2011-11-20 at the Wayback Machine. on CEEPUR
  5. ↑ "Jorge Colberg deja su escaño en la Cámara para trabajar en Fortaleza". El Nuevo Día. January 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ Banuchi, Rebecca (January 14, 2013). "Jorge Colberg permanecerá en la Cámara hasta finales de mes". El Nuevo Día.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.