Proantioquia is a non-profit, privately operated foundation, established in 1975 by a group of prominent entrepreneurs from Antioquia.  It is the resolve of the Foundation to build an increasingly economically competitive region, based on social equitable conditions, while the goal is to establish an integrated and peaceful society that provides opportunities for all.  For many years, Proantioquia has participated in high-impact projects for the region's development and competitiveness.  Working in partnership with the sub-regions of Antioquia, inter-institutional alliances have been created to help promote economic development projects, improving the management, quality and relevance of education, and boosting local public practices. Throughout this entire process, they have encouraged the private sector to actively participate in the creation, discussion and means of public policies as well as the design of initiatives tending to improve the population's level and quality of life.

Mission
As a non-profit foundation, the mission is to promote and support strategic initiatives for the nation's welfare and the region's development, with social responsibility and fairness.

Vision 
To be recognized as an organization which, through its own initiatives and strategic alliances, improves social capabilities and conditions to carry out collective efforts to build the nation and region.

THEIR WORK

Education

The goal of Proantioquia's Education Department is to create strategies linking corporate capabilities and resources to Antioquia's educational development, backing the design and implementation of public policies as well as improving the quality of education. Today, the Education Department acts as the Executive Secretariat of the Antioquia Regional Office of ExE (Fundación Empresarios por la Educación), which implies the local leadership of nationwide projects to expand the impact of initiatives and boost business support to benefit education.

During the past four years, Proantioquia and ExE created an alliance with public and private entities to design and operate MEPE ("School Models for Equitable Conditions" project) based on constantly assessing, improving the processes within the project and standardization, the Education Department and the allies which have a comprehensive and high-impact local educational management model.

Said model seeks to enhance the efficiency and quality of the educational management of municipalities, impacting the educational policies as well as the development of the students' skills. Indeed, MEPE focuses on institutional management, classroom management and context management, and has a series of tools which improve the type of management needed by each of the players of the educational system: Education Secretaries and Officers, Directors, Teachers, Parents and Students.

Stemming from the 2009 Strategic Plan, the Education Department implements strategies to work hand-in-hand with the three settings of MEPE, in successful initiatives previously developed independently. Hence, MEPE has turned into the beacon for the Education Department.

Competitiveness

The Competitiveness Department of Proantioquia seeks to build institutional awareness among local administrations to boost entrepreneurship in the region's strategic sectors, with high value-added and innovation. Hence, they base the actions on two areas: Supporting Entrepreneurship (Apoyo al emprendimiento), to enhance the incorporation of new businesses in the region that create qualified jobs, innovative and differentiated in the market place; and the Improvement of inter-institutional management models for regional development (Mejoramiento de los Modelos de gestión interinstitucional para el desarrollo regional), which seeks to participate in initiatives to improve public-private institutions for increased competitiveness, allowing in turn to promote long-term policies.

Institutional Engagement

At Proantioquia, promoting initiatives and projects which help to improve established practices and sound public policies to support good local and regional governments is extremely important. Hence, they support the work carried out by the Social Think-Tank Center (Centro de Pensamiento Social) and the project Medellin How Are We Doing (Medellín Cómo Vamos).