Carlos E. Umaña is from Costa Rica.  He obtained his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Costa Rica in 2005. Subsequently, he initiated his Master Degree in Economics at expects to finish his thesis by 2010.  He is currently an LL.M. candidate for the International Economic Law and Policy Program (IELPO) at the University of Barcelona. Carlos is a fluent speaker in both Spanish and English, and has good grasp of many computer programs - including Windows (Excel, Word, Power Point), Eviews and Stata.

Regarding his labor experience, Carlos worked as an advisor and Trade Negotiator in the Ministry of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, at the Trade and Investment Analysis Unit (2007-2008). Additionally, Carlos worked as a research assistant at the Academia de Centroamérica (2005-2006), the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Económicas at the University of Costa Rica (2005), and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (2006).

Carlos has taken some technical courses related to trade: the Latin American Regional Training Course on Key Issues on the International Economic Agenda, organized by UNCTAD, in Lima, Peru (2007), and the BID/Intal-WTO Course-Workshop for Latin American countries about Negotiations on Market Access for Non-Agriculture Products (NAMA) in Quito, Ecuador (2008). In addition, the on-line WTO Courses entitled "Agricultura y la OMC" and "Technical Barriers to Trade in the WTO".

Carlos participated in the edition of the following publications: (i) Los Sistemas de Pensiones: Presente y Futuro (2006) and Inversión Extranjera en Centroamérica (2006). He had also written for the Universidad del Pacifico academic publication Punto de Equilibrio (Peru, 2007).

As part of his complementary activities, Carlos had been a competitor of the Costa Rica Swimming Federation tournaments. His swimming tournaments experiences include the attendance to international tournaments in Cuba, Colombia, United Status and Panama.