Alfonso Dávila Ortiz (4 April 1922 – 10 November 2015) was a Colombian civil engineer, diplomat, businessman and forester, former ambassador to Spain and Kuwait, Chargé d'Affaires in the United States of America, Governor of the Province of Cundinamarca, President of the Colombian Banker’s Association, twice President of the Colombian Association of Engineers, Councilor of the city of Bogotá, lifelong President of Bogotá’s Jockey Club and member of Colombia’s National Council of Public Works.

Following the sale in 1926 Archived 2016-08-18 at the Wayback Machine to the Municipality of Bogotá of the Compañía Nacional de Electricidad that he had founded (which merged with another private firm to create the nationalised Empresas Unidas de Energia),[1] his father took his family to Europe (Brussels, Paris and Eastbourne) for five years.

Dávila Ortiz was subsequently educated in the traditional Gimnasio Moderno of Bogotá, and graduated at 16.

While running a successful construction businesses he subsequently completed a postgraduate degree in Economics at Bogotá’s Universidad de los Andes (1963), an MSc in Marketing in Spain (1982) and a postgraduate degree in Business Management at INALDE in Bogotá (1986).

[3][4] He was elected Councilor of Bogotá in 1972-1974, and more importantly as Governor of the Province of Cundinamarca in 1972-1974,[5] appointed by President Misael Pastrana Borrero (1970-1974).

As Governor he pushed through a major administrative reform including the creation of six posts of ‘Deputy Governors’ to coordinate the work of (appointed) municipal mayors, and the creation in 1974 of the pioneering Cundinamarca Forestry Corporation with the aim of addressing the rapid deterioration of the province’s natural resources.

Bases para una Reforma Urbana”, Boletín Informativo Camacol, July 1969.

La Reforestación en Colombia, Visión de Futuro, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung-Fedemaderas, Bogotá, 2007.

ISBN 978-958-44-2247-7 El Jockey Club que yo conocí, Villegas Editores, Bogotá, 2010.