First director of Cenicaña. He was born in Bogotá on April 9, 1920. Agricultural Engineer with a specialization in Agricultural Economics (1943) at Cornell University, United States.
He served as Director General of the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences (current, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture - IICA) in San José, Costa Rica, in 1960-1966, Director Emeritus; Minister of Agriculture of Colombia in 1966-1967 and 1969-1970; Rector of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in 1971; Deputy Director General of FAO, Santiago de Chile (Representative for Latin America) in 1972-1974; President and founding member of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture - CIAT in 1973-1976, Honorary President; President of the National Corporation for Forestry Research and Development - CONIF, in 1974-1978; President and CEO of Cenicaña in 1978-1990, Director Emeritus.
Armando Samper Gnecco (right) in the company of Pedro León Velásquez, general manager of ICA, during the opening ceremony of the closed quarantine station for imported varieties of sugar cane in Tibaitatá, Cundinamarca, September 1979.
Armando Samper Gnecco receives a scroll from Juan José Lülle Suárez (left) as a symbol of gratitude. They are accompanied by Jean Kutchbach, wife of dr. Samper, September 6, 2002 on the XXV anniversary of Cenicaña.
