Santiago was born in Bogota, Colombia and graduated from MIT (1977). With over 30 years of academic and public/private sectors work experience in Urban and Regional Development at local, national, regional and global levels in scientific, technical, managerial and administrative positions of high responsibility and leadership. Since 1994, he has been mainly concentrated in the areas of policy formation, capacity building and application of spatial information to governance, land administration and the strategic value of geographic information for developing nations.

Internationally, Santiago Borrero served one term as president of the GSDI and was the inaugural chair for PC-IDEA (today UN-GGIM Americas), the Permanent Committee for SDI for the Americas. In Colombia was director of the Colombian Geographic Institute (IGAC), where he established the first national SDI initiative in the Americas, the ICDE. Also, he was director of the Colombian Development Projects Fund, the Association of Consulting Engineers, and general manager of the Bogota Water Supply Co

Recently Santiago Borrero completed a successful ten years term as Secretary General, leading the Panamerican Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH).

Currently, Santiago Borrero is operating as an international consultant and a Senior Advisor to the GeoSUR Program.

Santiago Borrero  will be mediator at Seminário Gestores Públicos de Geoinformação,to be held in may 7th as part of MundoGEO#Connect LatinAmerica 2014, Conference and Trade Fair on Geomatics and Geospatial Solutions, in Sao Paulo, Brazil