María Teresa Infante

Infante Barros was born into a family of ten children to Carlos José Infante Covarrubias and Sara Barros Vergara. Among her ancestors was Ernesto Barros Jarpa, a former member of parliament and minister of state.^[2][3] One of her brothers, Antonio Infante, served as Undersecretary of Health during the presidency of Ricardo Lagos.^[2]

She studied at the Colegio Universitario Inglés in Santiago and later at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where she graduated with a degree in business engineering with a concentration in economics.^[2][4]

A member of the Guildist Movement from a young age, she joined the research department of the state planning agency Odeplan in the early years of the military regime, working under Miguel Kast.^[2][4]

In 1976, she enrolled at the University of Chicago in the United States to pursue a master's degree in economics.^[4] During this period she studied alongside figures such as Julio Dittborn, Álvaro Donoso, Cristián Larroulet, Joaquín Lavín, and Juan Andrés Fontaine.^[4]

Upon returning to Chile in 1978, she rejoined Odeplan and later moved to the planning office of the Ministry of Education of Chile, where she worked on the decentralization of the Chilean education system.^[4]

In March 1985 she was appointed Undersecretary of Social Security.^[2] In 1989 she was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, a position she held until the end of the military government.^[2][4]

After leaving government, she entered the private sector as a businessperson and consultant through her advisory firm, Infante y Asociados.^[4]