Prior to his position at the IDB, Ambassador Morales served as a consultant to companies focused on providing financial services to the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets, including the world's leading micro-lender to Latin America and a community development bank based in New York. He was formerly Senior Vice President of Viamericas Corporation, a path-breaking company that offered the first pre-paid money transfer card in the U.S. to the Latin American remittance market.

Between 1997 and 2000, Ambassador Morales spent 4 years in Argentina as President and General Manager of Reliant Energy Argentina. He joined Reliant Energy, a publicly traded company based in Houston, Texas, in 1993 as an attorney in the international law department. In 1995, he became Director of Project Development for Latin America and the Caribbean. Before joining Reliant, Mr. Morales was in private practice as a business lawyer at Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody in Austin, Texas and Crain, Caton & James in Houston, Texas. Mr. Morales received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and his B.A. in history from Columbia College in New York City.