He has been a close collaborator to the governments of the centre-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy (1990–2010), and for six years held the position of Budget Director, where he played a key role in the design of the structural surplus rule.

[1][2][3] Marcel studied at the Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera high school in Santiago[4] and Business Administration at the University of Chile (1977-1981), where he graduated as the best student of his class.

[7] Upon Patricio Aylwin's arrival at the Presidency of the Republic in March 1990, and Alejandro Foxley at the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Marcel joined the Government as Advisor on macroeconomics and social programs, later assuming the position of Deputy Budget Director.

[8] At the end of 1996, he took office as Interim Director of the Budget Division (Dipres), when the incumbent, José Pablo Arellano —with whom he has a long-lasting friendship— was appointed Minister of Education.

Between October and December he led the approval processing of the Budget Law; promoted the first protocol of budgetary agreements between the Government and the Congress; and laid the foundations for the public sector management control system that would be developed in the following years.

Marcel is recognized as one of the ideologues of the 1% of GDP structural surplus rule, because before assuming, he had conducted a study on the methodology for calculating long-term fiscal indicators.

[14] Between 2006 and 2008, he worked as a senior researcher at Cieplan, professor at the University of Chile, director of the firms Transelec and Aguas Metropolitanas, and as international consultant for Mexico, El Salvador and Vietnam.

In such capacity, he actively participated in the monitoring fiscal consolidation policies in developed countries and launched the agency's institutional trust agenda.

[17] On 25 October 2016, he was appointed by President Bachelet as Governor of the Central Bank, a position he assumed on 11 December, after Rodrigo Vergara completed his five-year term.