Purdue’s Director of the Office of Global Partnerships

Juan Diego Velásquez de Bedout is Purdue’s Director of the Office of Global Partnerships since fall 2025. He is also, currently, the Director for Latin American Programs and the Colombia Purdue Partnership (CPP). He is a connector of people, a builder of strong relationships, a dedicated facilitator of partnerships, and an innovator of programs that reach across the university and across the world. He is passionate about bringing Purdue to the world and the world to Purdue. Prior to joining the Office of Global Partnerships, Juan was the Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Strategic Planning & Assessment in the College of Engineering where he supported two major faculty-and-staff-led initiatives: the Purdue Systems Collaboratory (PSC), and the Colombia Purdue Initiative (CPI). Prior to that, Juan was the Assistant Director of TA and Curricular Development at Purdue’s Center for Instructional Excellence.

Over the last 3 years Juan has been actively engaged with countries in Latin America to broaden and deepen Purdue’s collaborations in strategic areas for the university specifically related to semiconductors, advanced technologies and artificial intelligence. The success of the Colombia Purdue Partnership, a country-to-university win-win engagement that has flourished over the last 13 years, provided Juan a roadmap for the significant growth of Purdue’s collaborations with Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,

Mexico, and Panama focused on talent development in the strategic areas described before. As Purdue’s global footprint grows, Juan and his team are expanding collaborations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Juan has published several peer-reviewed articles on the application of best-matching protocols in production settings, teaching programs, and collaborated in the publication of Springer’s Handbook of Automation. He is the academic advisor for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.