Javier Franco is the former President of the Colombian Maritime Law Association, titulary member of the International Maritime Committee (CMI) and member of the IWG on Lex Marítima. He is also a member of the Customs and Trade Facilitation Commission at ICC Colombia and serves on the Maritime Hull & Liabilities Committee, the Legal Observatory and the Claims Observatory of the Latin American Association of Marine Underwriters (ALSUM).

He was part of the expert working group that drafted the first version of Colombia’s Maritime Code proposal for the Colombian Maritime Authority (DIMAR). He holds an LL.M. in International Commercial and Maritime Law from Swansea University, UK (Distinction, 2009) and was recently granted a doctorate (honoris causa) by the Centro Universitario de Estudios Jurídicos. His most notable academic contributions include the book “Legal Aspects of Logistics and Logistics Services Contracts” (2014) and his coordination of “Perspectives on Maritime Law and Logistics” (2023).

He is an Arbitrator at the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, a Research Professor in Commercial Law at Universidad Externado de Colombia, and the Director of the Logistics Observatory at the same university. Additionally, he is a Partner at Franco & Abogados Asociados. He also serves as the Director of the International Working Group on Trade Facilitation and Sustainability at the Center for Ocean Policy and Economics (USA) and is a BIMCO-certified trainer.