Ambassador Alejandro Orfila was born in Mendoza, Argentina on March 9, 1925. After finishing secondary school, he entered the University of Buenos Aires where he studied law. Later he studied political science at Stanford University in California and foreign trade at Tulane University in Louisiana.

In 1946, he was nominated Embassy Secretary in the Argentine Foreign Service. In subsequent years, he was appointed to Moscow, Warsaw, San Francisco, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. Ambassador Orfila served in different embassies and consulates of Argentina and as Director of Public Relations of the Organization of American States.

Following this assignment, he was appointed Argentine Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States and served in that post until 1960. That year he was appointed Argentine Ambassador to Japan where he remained until he retired to private life in 1963.

For the following ten years, Ambassador Orfila acted as a consultant in the field of international finances and economic affairs based in Washington, D.C.

In November 1973, Ambassador Orfila was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Argentina to the United States and served in this capacity until July 1975. At that time, he was elected to his first term as Secretary General of the Organization of American States by its General Assembly and re-elected to a second five-year term in October 1979.

After his retirement from the Organization of American States, Ambassador Orfila re-entered the business world as a consultant and investor in the field of international finances and real estate.

In August 1989, Ambassador Orfila and his wife, Helga Leifeld, moved to Rancho Santa Fe, California where he engaged in real estate and community activities and purchased Orfila Vineyards & Winery.

Ambassador Orfila has been decorated by a number of European, Latin American and Asian governments and has received honorary degrees from universities in the United States and Latin America.