Lawyer from the Universidad de Chile, where he graduated with the highest distinction.
Founder of the Renovación Nacional party, a group he presided from 1990 to 1996. He was a member of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 1998 and a State senator from 2006 to 2011, when he was appointed Minister of Defense during President Sebastián Piñera's first term in office. He was Senator for Santiago from 2014 to July 2020, when he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He was a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) based in Washington DC and Director of Development and first Dean of the School of Government at the Adolfo Ibañez University.
He is the author of several publications, including "La Travesía del Desierto" (Alfaguara) and "La política importa. Democracy and Development in Latin America" (BID).