Enrique Forero holds a botany degree from the National University of Colombia and a PhD from the City University of New York. He was professor at the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia where he also held the positions of Director of the Colombian National Herbarium, Head of the Botany Section, first director of the Graduate Program in Systematics and Director of the Institute, and Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University.
Forero also served as Director of Research at the Missouri Botanical Garden, International Consultant at the National Center for Genetic Resources (Brazil), Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, visiting and/or adjunct professor at universities and research centers in Brazil, Colombia, Denmark and the United States.
A firm believer in scientific cooperation, he laid the foundations for the creation of the Colombian Herbaria Association, founded the Latin American Botanical Association and was a founding member of the Scientific Committee of the Latin American Botanical Network.
For 20 years he was actively involved with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a member of the Species Survival Commission´s Plant Specialists groups. Forero was also a Member of the joint IUCN-WWF Plants Advisory Group, and Colombian and South and Central American representative to the Convention on International Traffic of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES). He was President of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences from 2013 through 2022 (9 years).
Forero was a member of the following committees: Freedom and Responsibility in Science of the International Science Council, Membership Committee of the InterAcademy Partnership, Executive Board of the Inter American Network of the Academies of Science (IANAS), Strategic Committee of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and Technical Advisory Committee of the Commission of Science and Technology for the South (COMSATS, since Dec. 2022). He is member of the Council of the United Nations University (since May 2022).
He served as the President of the Colombian College of Academies from 2015 to 2017.