Written by Jason Phillips
Economist and entrepreneur Donald Guerrero began his career in academia, instructing students at universities in the Dominican Republic. His responsibilities saw him teach macroeconomics and business economics at Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University and business strategy at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. He also returned to one of his alma maters, the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), to teach international and corporate finance at the postgraduate level. By passing on his expertise to his students, Donald Guerrero influenced a generation of economists, financial professionals, business leaders, and academics.
Donald Guerrero came to his professorships having completed an economics degree with honors from INTEC. He subsequently earned a postgraduate degree in business administration from the school before relocating to the United States. Studying on a Fulbright Scholarship, he earned a master’s degree in microeconomics and finance from the University of Maryland. His academic credentials also include a postgraduate degree in banking and finance from Chase Manhattan Bank in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Guerrero’s background made him well positioned to be a responsible steward of his native Dominican Republic’s economy. In 2016, the president of the country appointed Guerrero to serve as minister of finance. Over his four-year tenure, he improved the financial health of the Caribbean nation by implementing measures that safeguarded its economy.
Recognizing that tax evasion was a significant problem, Donald Guerrero ensured the Dominican Republic adopted the highest international tax standards by leading it in joining the project against Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Implementing the BEPS standards generated revenue for the country by enhancing tax transparency and curbing tax evasion. Guerrero similarly brought in revenue by improving the Dominican Republic’s collections, which under his direction hit a record 100% in 2018. Meanwhile, he addressed the country’s debt by reducing public spending to one of the lowest levels in the region.
As a testament to Donald Guerrero’s success as minister of finance, the Dominican Republic enjoyed a higher rate of economic growth than any other Latin American or Caribbean nation in the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. His stewardship was recognized by the Latin American magazine AméricaEconomía, which included him on its 2016 list of the three best finance ministers in the region, and the British publication The Banker, which named him 2018 Minister of Finance of the Year for the Americas.
In addition to his achievements in academia and government, Guerrero is a successful entrepreneur who is the longtime chief executive officer of an automotive company in Puerto Rico. He founded Axis Automotive Group in 1996 when he purchased a Toyota service center in Muñoz Rivera. Under his leadership, Axis Automotive Group has consistently expanded over the subsequent decades and now comprises seven dealerships, five service shops, a body shop, and fleet department.
Axis Automotive Group maintains relationships with a variety of automotive brands, including Toyota, Nissan, BMV, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and MINI. By employing more than 800 staff members—who in 2024 sold more than 12,000 vehicles and completed more than 247,000 hours of service—Donald Guerrero has made a sizable contribution to the Caribbean economy.
