Joaquín Costanzo was born in Uruguay, is married and has three children. In 1980 he began working as a journalist for different newspapers, radios, and TV stations in his country. He was Chief of Political and Society Information of La República and La Hora newspapers; Director of the Information Department of Radio Nacional; Director of News Programs of the TV station TevéCiudad; and Editor-in-Chief of the Uruguayan news agency Pressur.

His relationship with IPS began in the 80’s, but he actually started working for the agency in 1994 when the Latin American Regional Office was established in Montevideo. Before becoming Regional Editor, he was part of the Editor’s Desk.

Since 2003, Costanzo has been Development Director of the Tierramérica environmental communication project, and between April 2004 and December 2006 he was part of the IPS Latin America Direction Team.

He has been a member of the IPS Board of Directors since 2005, and in January 1, 2006 he was appointed Regional Director for IPS Latin America.