Tomas Uribe

Who is he: Tómas Uribe is a board member of Residuos Ecoeficiencia, the plastics, paper and metal recycling company he started during his second year of college, in 2003. Uribe is the son of Álvaro Uribe, former president of Colombia from 2002 to 2010.

During his father's presidency, Tómas was accused of various improprieties, relating mainly to exerting undue influence afforded by his father's position in his business activities and purported relationships with drug traffickers and/or terrorists. All of the charges against Uribe have been eventually dismissed, whether such accusations were brought in the court or simply in the media of Colombia, often echoed by corporate media in Britain and the United States.

In one of the most high profile examples of such allegations, Tómas was accused of exerting undue influence in the appointment of a notary at the time of his father's reelection. The anti-corruption unit of the Colombian Prosecutor General's office opened an investigation into the allegations that Tómas Uribe bribed congressmen in an effort to secure his father's reelection in 2006. However, after two years of inquiry, in May 2012 the prosecution requested the investigations be closed due to lack of evidence. In granting this request, the court pointed out no documentary evidence or valid testimonies had been presented.

One reporter summarized the various allegations over the years against Tómas Uribe, stating: "There have been so many myths that have created that if it weren't because they were the president's sons, nobody would have paid attention. But they are. ... But how much of what is said is fiction and what is the reality?" (Semana.com)

Background: Tómas Uribe Moreno was born in the Antioquia District of Colombia on April 19, 1981 to Lina María Moreno Mejía and Álvaro Uribe Velez.

Tómas studied chemical engineering and finance at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogata and later attended Stanford Graduate School of Business from which he graduated in 2012.

On 26 July 2008 Tómas Uribe married Isabel Sofia Cabrales Baquero, a political science graduate of Pontifical Xavierian University, Miss Cartagena winner and First Runner-Up of Miss Colombia 2002. The couple lives in California and as of summer, 2012 are expecting their first child.