Panels
Challenges of Private Equity Firms in the Region
Moderador: Mr. Aldo Musacchio, Harvard Business School - Associate Professor in the BGIE unit
Panelists - Click here to view bios
The expansion of Latin America’s middle class, the changes in social pyramid, an increasingly young population and the subsequent emergence of new consumer habits are driving a wide range of investment opportunities for Private Equity players in the region. Over the past few years, there has been a steady increase in the number of deals in consumer-related industries such as retail, consumer products, education, healthcare and consumer finance. Partners of both local and international PE firms will share insights on opportunities and challenges facing PE investors targeting the Latin American consumer.
The New Wave of Commodities: Building Sustainable Development in the Region
Moderador: Gautam Mukunda - Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Panelists - Click here to view bios
There is no doubt that commodities have been critical for Latin America’s countries throughout their history, and that they may have even changed the course of world history. Unfortunately, even with all its natural riches, Latin America has failed to grow in parallel with countries that have now achieved high-income status. The cyclical pattern of commodity price has certainly created significant uncertainty. However, the region’s major longer-run challenge going forward will be to craft a growth-oriented reform agenda that closes the gaps in areas such as saving, human capital accumulation, infrastructure, and the ability to adopt and adapt new technologies. Is Latin America ready to take advantage of its natural resources to pursue sustainable growth? What is needed to take advantage of an emerging market-led economic recovery without falling victim to the natural resource curse, again?
Government and the Business Sector: Infrastructure in Latin America, the challenge in a rapidly growing region
Moderador: Ms. Laura Alfaro, Harvard Business School, Professor in the BGIE unit
Panelists - Click here to view bios
During the last decade, Latin America experienced a rapidly growth. In contrast, the improvements in transport infrastructure, electricity supply, and information and communication technologies remained deficient. According to the World Economic Forum (2012-2013), the region faces a significant gap with the developed economies in regards an extensive and efficient infrastructure. While the OECD countries’ transportation indicator is 4.96 points, Latin American indicator reaches 3.3 points; and information and communication technologies evidence the higher difference. In this context, the region grew a 4.2% in 2013, and is expected to grow a 3.4%. However, the infrastructure gap undermines the competitiveness of the region and questions the sustainability of growth patterns.
Transportation, energy networks and communication technologies are fundamentals of economic growth and development. They ensure competitiveness by reducing the transportation and transaction costs, and by providing reliable energy supply. As the region’s significant lag on infrastructure quality may trigger the projected growth, the aim of the Infrastructure Panel at the “XV Latin American Conference” is to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by its main actors, and it will focus in three key aspects. Firstly, since an extensive transportation infrastructure enables the efficient allocation of resources, reduces de travel costs, and promotes the exchange of ideas, it is strongly focused on roads, ports, and airports as key sources of communication. Secondly, the panel will focus on investment opportunities arising in a region with an insecure institutional framework, and, finally, the panel will analyze Brazil’s challenge facing the World Cup and the Olympics.
Business at the Base of the Pyramid
Moderador: Mr. Michael Chu, Harvard Business School, Senior Lecturer
Panelists - Click here to view bios
The panel will address business-oriented incentives for growth, innovation, and profits with the development community’s efforts to create a more inclusive capitalism in Latin- America. Business models that call for creating private and public value while aiming for scale are gradually becoming more prevalent in the region, the panelists will share their experiences working on companies trying to strike a balance between profit-creation for themselves and value-creation for their consumers. The panel will address business-oriented incentives for growth, innovation, and profits with thedevelopment community’s efforts to create a more inclusive capitalism in Latin- America. Businessmodels that call for creating private and public value while aiming for scale are gradually becoming moreprevalent in the region, the panelists will share their experiences working on companies trying to strikea balance between profit-creation for themselves and value-creation for their consumers.
Understanding and Winning with the Latin Consumer: Multibillion Latin American Success Stories
Moderador: Ms. Tatiana Sandino, Harvard Business School, Associate Professor in the Accounting and Management Unit
Panelists - Click here to view bios
Entrepreneurial Opportunities and Challenges
Moderador: Mr. Ramana Nanda, Harvard Business School, Associate Professor
Panelists - Click here to view bios
In this panel we will gain diverse perspective on the current entrepreneurship scene in Latin America, both from the angle of starting a business and the angle of investing. Panelists are currently in various stages of their ventures (ranging from in-the-thick-of-things to successful exits), with a range of geographic experience, enabling a discussion that highlights both broad contours and trends as well as adds color on opportunities and challenges specific to certain areas or countries.
Panelist Bios
Challenges of Private Equity Firms in the Region
Sebastián Villa, Partner - Southern Cross
Sebastián Villa has over 14 years of corporate and entrepreneurial and investing experience. Prior to re-joining Southern Cross in 2005, Mr. Villa was a member of Three Cities Research ("TCR"), a New York based private equity firm, with ties to the Bemberg family. At TCR, Mr. Villa successfully executed the sale of Meridian Rail, a leading service company to the North American freight rail industry. In 1999, Mr. Villa co-founded South-Net, a Latin American technology incubator sponsored by Southern Cross, where he was the acting Chief Financial Officer. At South-Net, Mr. Villa led successful investments such as Construmega - sold to Cemex in 2000, HotelDo - currently a leading internet based hotel wholesaler, and MayoristaNet - where he acted as Chief Executive Officer and led the company to become the largest foodservice distributor in Argentina. Prior to South-Net, Mr. Villa was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group's Buenos Aires office, where he participated in strategic and operational projects for leading firms operating in industries such as specialty packaging, retail and telecommunications. Mr. Villa began his career at Royal Dutch/Shell, where he worked as Area Manager for the Province of Buenos Aires.
Mr. Villa holds an Economics degree from the Universidad de San Andres, Buenos Aires, and an MBA from Columbia University.
Eduardo Mufarej, Managing Partner - Tarpon Investimentos
Eduardo Silveira Mufarej is a Managing Partner, Member of the Investment Committee and of the Board of Tarpon Investimentos, a Brazil based investment firm with USD 3.5 billion in assets. Eduardo joined the firm in early 2004.
Eduardo has worked in the Brazilian financial markets since 1997, when he started at Citigroup. In 1998 he joined French institution Banque CCF (now HSBC) to work at their Investment Banking Division in Brazil. In early 2002 he was made responsible for the Bank’s local M&A activities. He stayed at HSBC until the end of 2003. He is also a member of the Board of Arezzo S.A. and Omega Energia Renovável.
Away from the firm, Eduardo is the Chairman of the Board of the Brazilian Rugby Union and Board Member of the Nature Conservancy Brasil.
In 1996, Eduardo majored in Business Administration at Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC), in São Paulo.
Daniel Sterenberg, Principal - The Carlyle Group
Daniel Sterenberg is a Director focused on buyouts opportunities in South America. He is based in São Paulo, Brazil.
Since joining Carlyle in 2008, Mr. Sterenberg has been actively involved with Carlyle’s investments in current portfolio companies Tok&Stok and, in partnership with Carlyle U.S. Buyout Group, CVC Brasil Operadora e Agencia de Viagens S.A. (“CVC”).
Prior to joining Carlyle, Daniel Sterenberg was with McKinsey & Company in São Paulo. Prior to that, he co-founded Aceleradora.com S.A., a seed-stage venture capital firm, and was a financial analyst at Banco Bozano Simonsen.
Mr. Sterenberg received an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in Computer Science from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Mr. Sterenberg currently serves in the Board of Directors of CVC and Tok&Stok, where he is the Chairman of the Board.
Danyel Arenas – Managing Partner, BBC Asset Management
A native of Colombia, Danyel has an investment banking background with experience in strategic management, financial planning, business optimization, project structuring and valuations in excess of $200 million USD. Danyel has experience managing portfolios for private investors in the U.S and Colombia in both public and private markets. Danyel currently sits on several boards ranging from mining to luxury retail companies. He received a certification from the Investment Banking Institute in 2009 in Boston. Danyel obtained a B.S. in Management from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Prior to, Danyel played professional baseball in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Danyel’s rich and diverse vertical network as well as his ability to successfully negotiate and close deals play an integral and central value to BBC. Danyel is responsible for overseeing and coordinating all aspects of BBC’s asset management.
Aldo Mussacchio - Associate Professor of Business Administration, Business, Government, and International Economy
Harvard Business School
Aldo Musacchio has been in the faculty of HBS since 2004. He is currently an associate professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit (BGIE) and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Professor Musacchio’s first research projects focused on how companies can adopt corporate governance practices that protect investors in relatively adverse legal and institutional environments. His book, Experiments in Financial Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2009) studies the mechanisms Brazilian firms used to follow high corporate governance standards before 1950, when the legal protections for investors were relatively weak. He argues that companies are not trapped in the legal systems in which they operate. They can overcome their institutional environments through better practices and by designing bylaws that compensate for the weak legal environment.
Professor Musacchio’s current research project with Professor Sergio Lazzarini, of Insper in Brazil, looks at the new ways in which states intervene in the economy. In particular, they examine the effects on firm performance of having the state as a minority shareholder ("the minority ownership model"). Additionally, they examine the effects on performance, when firms have access to cheap long-term loans from development banks
Finally, Professor Musacchio is also developing a series of cases and articles looking at best practices in state-owned enterprises. The objective of this research project is to provide lessons to improve the performance of large state-owned companies, especially in contexts where governments face political constraints to privatize such companies in full or in part, or where managers of state-owned enterprises cannot freely hire and fire workers or charge market rates for their services or products.
Aldo Musacchio has a B.A. in economics (with highest honors) from ITAM, in Mexico, and a Ph. D. in Economic History of Latin America from Stanford University. He is a faculty associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a member of the Brazil Studies Committee and the Mexican Studies Committee, all at Harvard University. In 2007 he was selected as one of the “30 most promising professionals in their thirties (30 promesas en los treintas)” by Mexican business magazine Expansion. Musacchio is a member of the board of trustees of LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing higher education in the Americas. Aldo Musacchio obtained a B.A. in Economics with highest honors from ITAM in Mexico City.
The New Wave of Commodities: Building Sustainable Development in the Region
Douglas Albrecht, Co-founder - Grupo Tabepicuá
Mr. Albrecht is a season entrepreneur operating in Agro Industrial businesses in the Americas. His investments and new activities are channeled through the Equivalence Group. He is a principal and founding partner of the following Companies:
Celulosa Argentina/Grupo Tapebicuá: Mr. Albrecht is the founding partner who organized the acquisition and rollup of forestry, pulp and paper assets in Argentina and Uruguay. He is the Executive Chairman and principal shareholder of the Company. Grupo Tapebicua was formed in 2005 and currently owns and operates Celulosa Argentina, the leading pulp and paper manufacturer of Argentina; Fanapel, the leading integrated pulp and paper manufacturer of Uruguay; 20,000 hectares of forests in Argentina and Uruguay and three saw mill and ply mill plants in Argentina. The company has over USD 400 million in sales and approximately $70 million in Ebitda, grown from $30 million in 2007. In 2009 he led a management buyout of the company.
Patagonia Bioenergia: Mr. Albrecht co-founded and serves as director of the holding company of PBE, which operates one of the world’s largest biodiesel facilities in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. The company produces 500.000 tons per year. It principally exports its products to the European Union.
Omega Grains: A producer of high value added vegetable oils on marginal agricultural lands in the US and Argentina. The company focuses on genetic improvement of Camelina, and proprietary extraction technology to produce Omega 3 Fatty acids for pharmaceutical usage.
Farmacity: Mr. Albrecht is a co-founder and former Director of Farmacity, the leading retail chain of pharmacies in Argentina founded in 1998 that currently operates 140 stores throughout Argentina. Mr. Albrecht, along with his co-founders, developed the business plan, raised capital and hired management group to implement successful startup venture which was sold to a private equity firm in 2007.
Mr. Albrecht worked for 4 years for the Boston Consulting Group as a case leader in Brazil, Argentina and New York. He worked for 3 years as an Economist for the World Bank in education and social sector policy reform.
Mr. Albrecht holds degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University.
Sebastián Coates, Co-founder / CEO - Eolia Renovables
EOLIA Renovables is the energy division of ANTHEIA GROUP with focus in the development of wind and solar projects in Argentina. EOLIA has raised seed capital from angel investors to develop the first portfolio of projects, and expects to raise a first round of investment by the end of 2013.
Booz & Company (2007-2010): Associate in the Energy & Utilities practice, expert in commodities - Focus in Latin America markets with on site experience in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela.
NEXEN Consulting (2002-2005): Identified, acquired, and transformed for a group of investors, cattle and underdeveloped ranches into agriculture production farms (Soybean, Sorghum, Cotton, Wheat, Maize) (Argentina).
MBA at Harvard Business School (2005 - 2007)
Bachelor in Business Administration at Universidad de San Andres (Argentina).
Roque Benavides, Chairman and CEO - Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
Roque Benavides, Chairman and CEO of Compañía de Minas Buenaventura, a Peruvian mining company founded in 1953 and listed in the Lima Stock Exchange and in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BVN).
Mr. Benavides was Chief Financial Officer of the company from 1985 till 2001, when was appointed President & CEO and in March 2011 he was appointed Chairman & CEO.
He serves as Board Member of Banco de Credito del Peru, Cementos Lima and Sociedad Minera El Brocal, three Peruvian publicly traded companies; and of Hudbay Minerals, a Canadian public company.
He also has served as a Board Member of the Sociedad de Minería y Petróleo del Perú (Mining and Petroleum Society of Peru) since 1988, serving as Chairman of the Board from 1993 to 1995. Mr. Benavides served as Chairman of the Board of the Confederación Nacional de Instituciones Empresariales Privadas (CONFIEP – Confederation of Peruvian Industries) from 1999 to March 2001. In 2001, Mr. Benavides was appointed to the Board of the World Gold Council and in 2008 was appointed President of the Silver Institute. Mr. Benavides received a B.S. in Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) in Lima, Peru in 1977 and an M.B.A. from Henley Management College (U.K.) in 1980, completed the Program for Management Development at The Harvard Business School in 1985 and the Advanced Management Program at Templeton College of Oxford University in 1997.
He led the Business Council for International Negotiations (CENI) in support of the Peruvian Government for the Free Trade Agreement between United States and Peru since 2003.
Mr. Benavides has been decorated in Perú as Amauta by the Ministry of Education and by the Ministry of Labour with the “Orden del Trabajo”.
He has also been decorated by the Governments of Ecuador and Brazil for his contribution to the integration of businesses between Peru and Ecuador after the Peace Treaty signed among the two countries in 1998. Has also has been decorated by the Government of Italy.
Mr. Eduardo Caramori Dall'Astra - Former General Director, Libero Commodities
Mr. Dall'Astra has over twelve years’ experience in the agribusiness. He worked on cotton, corn and soybean production and marketing, and participated actively on the structuring of a soybean seed production business in the early 2000’s. From 2008 onwards, he worked on the structuring of Libero Commodities, a trading company half owned by Brazilian farmers innovating by partaking with farmers. In March 2013, he resigned to the role of General Director of Libero Commodities to dedicate himself to new opportunities in the Brazilian agribusiness value chain.
Mr. Dall'Astra studied law and business administration. He holds a MBA in strategic management of marketing and a master degree in Agri-Energy from a joint course from EESP-FGV, ESALQ-USP and EMBRAPA.
He is member of the International Cotton Association and former director of Brazilian Cotton Exporters Association. He participated in the Euromoney Seminars 5th and 6th Annual Trade and Commodity Finance in Brazil Conference (2011 and 2012, respectively), and in the Harvard Agribusiness seminars hold in São Paulo and Boston (2011 and 2013, respectively).
Gautam Mukunda - Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Gautam Mukunda is an Assistant Professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School. Before joining the business school he was the National Science Foundation Synthetic Biology ERC Postdoctoral Fellow resident at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies. He received his PhD from MIT in Political Science and an A.B. in Government from Harvard, magna cum laude. His research focuses on leadership, international relations, and the social and political implications of technological change. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and MIT's Security Studies Program and Program on Emerging Technologies.
Before graduate school he was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he focused on the pharmaceutical sector. He is Founding Managing Director of The Two Rivers Group, a strategy consulting firm focusing on applying insights from academia to private and public sector problems. He is a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Mentorship Committee of The Upakar Foundation, a national non-profit devoted to providing college scholarships to underprivileged students of South Asian descent. He is a Paul & Daisy Soros New American Fellow, an NSF IGERT Fellow, and a Next Generation Fellow of The American Assembly. He has published articles on leadership, military innovation, network-centric warfare, and the security and economic implications of synthetic biology in Security Studies, Parameters, Politics and the Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology, and the Washington Post. His first book, "Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter," was published in September 2012 by Harvard Business Review Press.
Government and the Business Sector: Infrastructure in Latin America, the challenge in a rapidly growing region
Carlos Roberto Osorio, Municipal Secretary, Rio de Janeiro - Department of Transportation
Carlos Roberto Osório (born 1966) is a Brazilian business man, who coordinated and spearheaded the application process from Rio to Olympics 2016. He joined the public service just over 2 years.
Currently, he employs his strategic vision as Secretary Municipal for the Department of Transportation in Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, Carlos is the secretary general of the Brazilian Olympic Committee. He was also the secretary general of the Rio 2016 bid committee and as of September 2009, he was unanimously elected to assume the same role if Rio was to win the right to host the event.
Jorge Henrique Simões, CEO - Odebrecht Latinvest Perú
CEO at Odebrecht Latinvest, a new infrastructure investment company which is being developed in the Latin American countries where we operate and has chosen Peru as its headquarters. Its mission is to conquer new business in the following sectors: concessions, roads, ports, airports and pipelines.
Previously he was responsible for leading and ensuring the growth of the companies comprising the Odebrecht Group in Peru (2001-2012), in different areas of the construction market. Likewise, he was responsible for the business development of the portfolio of Public and Private Contracts, Concessions and Private-Initiative Infrastructure Projects. His business performance yielded Public, Private and Concession Contracts of Infrastructure Project such as Trasvase Olmos, IIRSA Norte, IIRSA Sur, TrenEléctrico, as well as venture into the field of Private Initiatives in Infrastructure Projects, ensuring delivery of projects to the satisfaction of the Customers, the outperformance of agreed results and accomplishment of the company goals and objectives, having in addition preserved the positive image of the Odebrecht Group, which this year celebrates 33 years of uninterrupted presence in the Peru.
Joe Nicklaus Nielsen, Managing Director - APM Terminals Latin American Terminals
Joe Nielsen has been associated with the A.P. Moller–Maersk Group since 1998. He has been involved with international shipping and infrastructure projects throughout his career, stationed in Denmark, Holland, UK, USA and now Panama.
Joe led the APM Terminals’ European business development activities from 2003, and helped position APM Terminals successfully in several Public Private Partnership tender processes throughout Europe and North Africa.
From 2008, Joe served as CFO for APM Terminals’ activities in the Americas Region based in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 2012, he assumed the responsibility as Managing Director for APM Terminals Latin America Terminals which includes operating terminals in Argentina, Brazil and Peru as well as business development activities.
A native of Denmark, Joe graduated from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark with a Master’s Degree in Finance and Accounting.
Martin Eurnekian, CEO - Corporación América Airports
Martin F. A. Eurnekian is CEO of Corporación América Airports, a division of Corporación América that manages 50 airports in Argentina, Armenia, Brasil, Ecuador, Italy, Peru and Uruguay.
He has been at Corporación América the last 15 years since the company entered the airport and infrastructure business. Since then, has held a number of positions and responsibilities in various aspects of the airport and its related businesses. During this time he has managed the life cycle of the airport concessions since bidding, to financing, design, construction and operation.
Martin holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering from Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Laura Alfaro, Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration - Business, Government and the International Economy
Harvard Business School
Professor Alfaro is the author of multiple articles published in leading academic journals, and of Harvard Business School cases related to the field of international economics and in particular international capital flows, foreign direct investment and sovereign debt. Her latest research has focused on the role local institutions play in attracting capital flows and allowing positive benefits of such flows, in particular foreign direct investment (FDI), to materialize. Other research interests include political economy, capital controls, and exchange-rate-based stabilization programs.
Laura Alfaro is the Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration at HBS. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1999, where she was recipient of the Dissertation Fellowship award. She received a B.A in economics with honors from the Universidad de Costa Rica in 1992 and a 'Licenciatura' from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Chile in 1994, where she graduated with highest honors. In 1992, she was awarded a Francisco Marroquin Foundation scholarship. She is also Faculty Research Fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research's International Macroeconomics and Finance Program and Faculty Associate at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. In 2008, she was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She served as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in Costa Rica from 2010-2012.
Business at the Base of the Pyramid
Carlos Labarthe, Co-CEO - Banco Compartamos
Mr. Carlos Labarthe Costas is a Co-Founder of Banco Compartamos S.A and serves as its Co-Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Labarthe Costas serves as an Executive President and Director of Compartamos S.A.B. de C.V. He is also a Member of the Executive Committee of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a World Bank Group, and serves as Chairman the MicroFinance Network Steering Committee. He also is General Partner at IGNIA Partners, LLC.
He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Anáhuac University. Mr. Labarthe Costas also completed an Executive Training Program at the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empreas (IPADE); studied Microfinance at The Economist Institute in Boulder, Colorado; and has taken postgraduate courses at Harvard Business School.
Luiz Ros, Opportunities for the Majority Sector Office Manager - Inter-American Development Bank
Luiz Ros was appointed Manager for the Opportunities for the Majority (OM) Sector Office under the Vice Presidency for the Private Sector in January 2008. Under his management, the Initiative has developed a portfolio of 34 operations for US $200 million across 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Before entering the Bank, Ros was the Global Manager for Markets and Sustainable Enterprise at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Ros has also served as a member of the strategic board for the VC III Stratus Investment Fund, which is based in São Paulo, Brazil and supports small, sustainable businesses.
Prior to working at WRI, Luiz was the Director for the National Environmental Fund at the Ministry of Environment in Brazil, where he funded more than 100 projects, including those with local communities and indigenous people in the Amazon region. He worked as a Task Manager for the World Bank, managing projects in Brazil for the Global Environmental Facility.
Luiz has a B.S. in Economics, a post-graduate degree in Latin American Economics, and a M.Sc. in International Relations and Environmental Economics from the University of Brasilia, Brazil. He was also a visiting scholar at the State University of New York in Syracuse.
Luiz has been recently selected among the top 6 business leaders working for a great cause, “Executivos de Grandes Causas,” by Época Negócios, a leading business magazine in Brazil.
Fernando Dasso, General Manager of Grupo Crédito S.A.
Fernando Dasso is responsible for Grupo Crédito S.A., the holding company of Credicorp in Perú. He is also a board member of Prima AFP, Financiera Edyficar, Willis Perú, Tarjeta Naranja Perú, among companies related to the group. Previously, he served as Head of Marketing and Manager of the branch network for BCP. Before joining BCP, he worked for McKinsey and Company in Madrid. Dasso holds a BA in Business Administration from Universidad del Pacífico and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Cecilia Riviello, CEO of Natura Cosmetics Mexico
Cecilia Riviello is CEO of Natura Mexico, leader in cosmetics, fragrances and personal hygiene in the Brazilian market, with a important presence in Latin America and Europe.
Her main responsibility is to expand Natura’s share in the Mexican market and convey the essence of the brand based on creating and marketing products and services that promote the well-being / being good. With over two years in her current position, Cecilia Riviello joined Natura with a strong and distinguished career of over 20 years, during which she has made important contributions to the fashion and beauty industries with its passage by companies like L 'Oreal, Estee Lauder, Liz Claiborne, Dicanco Group and Procter & Gamble.
She graduated with honors in Marketing from the “Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey” and has pursued studies in Leadership, Negotiation, Marketing, Communication and Teamwork.
At present, Cecilia is working as an advisor to the board of the National Chamber of the Cosmetics Industry, in addition to leading the Subcommittee on Social Responsibility of that organization. She is also secretary of the board of the Mexican Association of Direct Sales and member of the Mexican Association of Female Executives.
Cecilia actively and voluntarily mentors Mexican entrepreneurs through Endeavor Mexico, and works in community services such as assistance to educational foundations, orphanages, support food bank collections and fundraising for social action among other activities.
Michael Chu, Senior Lecturer in the Initiative on Social Enterprise - General Management Group
Harvard Business School
Michael Chu was appointed a Senior Lecturer in the Initiative on Social Enterprise of the General Management Group of the Harvard Business School in July 2003. He is also Managing Director of the IGNIA Fund, an investment firm based in Monterrey, Mexico, dedicated to investing in commercial enterprises serving low-income populations in Latin America, which he co-founded in 2007. He continues to serve as Senior Advisor and a founding partner of Pegasus Capital, a private equity firm in Buenos Aires, with a portfolio which includes major companies and real estate developments in Argentina, and a real estate joint venture in Colombia.
Chu teaches the second year elective Business and the Base of the Pyramid, a course developed with Professor V. Kasturi Rangan. He is Faculty Co-Chair of the Executive Education program Strategic Leadership for Microfinance. In the past, he has taught the course Investing and Managing in Emerging Markets, and Effective Leadership of Social Enterprises. Chu is co-head of Project Antares, a collaboration between HBS and the Harvard School of Public Health focusing on commercial approaches to deliver high-impact primary health care to low-income populations in developing nations.
Before Pegasus, as President & CEO of ACCION International, a nonprofit microfinance pioneer, Chu worked to develop financial services for low income sectors as a new segment of banking capable of outstanding returns. He participated in the founding of several regulated microfinance institutions and banks throughout Latin America, including Banco Solidario which under his chairmanship has been the most profitable bank in Bolivia, Mibanco in Peru and Compartamos Banco, which following its IPO in the Mexican Stock Exchange in 2007 has been incorporated into that exchange's index.
From 1989 to 1993, as an executive and limited partner in the New York office of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Chu was one of sixteen professionals deploying KKR’s $5.7 billion private equity fund and managing an investment portfolio with aggregate annual revenues in excess of $60 billion. He joined the private equity firm from PACE Industries, a KKR-sponsored leveraged buyout, where he served as Senior Vice President & CFO. Previously, he held senior management positions in U.S. corporations and was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Chu currently serves on the boards of Arcos Dorados (NYSE), Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE), and is an Emeritus Director of ACCION International and a Trustee Emeritus of Dartmouth College.
Chu graduated with an A.B.(Honors) from Dartmouth College and received a M.B.A. with highest distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School. Chu was born in Kunming, China and grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Understanding and Winning with the Latin Consumer: Multibillion Latin American Success Stories
Massimo Mazza, Partner - McKinsey & Company São Paulo
Massimo has focused his career to consumer goods products cross Latin America. He designed the entry strategy, growth plan, route to market and sales force effectiveness program of several local champions and multinational companies in several sectors: cosmetics, carbonated drinks, drugs, luxury products. His major projects are:
- Implementation of the performance transformation of a 500.000 direct sales force to increase productivity and loyalty of sales reps in multiple countries
- Design, pilot and implementation of themarket strategy and trade conditions for a major cosmetics company in Latin America
- Designed the RTM for a luxury automotive company in Brazil to capture the opportunities derived from the granularity of growth of luxury consumer in the country
Massimo holds a degree in Telecommunication engineering from Politecnico of Milan, a degree in industrial engineering Ecole Centrale Paris, a Master in Mathematics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School
Raúl Mandía, Chief Marketing Officer - Arcos Dorados
Raúl Mandía is the Chief Marketing Officer for Arcos Dorados, the largest McDonald's franchise in the world that represents the brand in over 20 markets and has sales of over 4 billion US$.
He has over 20 years of experience in Finance, Operations, Marketing and General Management.
As Marketing VP for Arcos Dorados, Mr. Mandía led the integration of the brand style of Communications in the region, and is responsible for the Revenue Management Team, Pricing and product development for Latina America.
Prior to joining Arcos Dorados in 2007, Mr. Mandía was Marketing VP of McDonald’s South Latin America Division for two years, leading the team responsible of Revenue Management, in the 8 country Division.
In previous positions Mr. Mandía was Managing Director for McDonald’s Uruguay and Paraguay, Operations Director for Latin America based in Oak Brook and also held the position of Operations Director and Finance Director in Uruguay.
Previously, Mr. Mandía worked for the Pan American Health Organization at Washington DC, and the Organization of American States in Washington DC as an accountant.
In addition to his duties as VP/CMO for Arcos Dorados, Mr. Mandía is a founder and honorary member of Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in Uruguay, has also been member of Uruguayan-American Chamber of Commerce for almost 10 years, and supports the work of Endeavor (a non-profit organization that pioneered the concept of “high-impact entrepreneurship” in emerging markets). Mr. Mandía is also a member of Uruguayan Rugby Union.
Mr. Mandía holds an M.S., B.S. and AAS in Taxation and Accounting at Southeastern University, Washington, Strayer College, Washington, and NVCC Virginia, respectively. He is a CPA from the State of Virginia, US and holds degree in Global Business Development at The Garvin School of International Management at Thunderbird University, Arizona.
Thales Muniz Soares - Associate Marketing Director, Gillette Global Shave Care
Thales has over 13 years experience in Marketing at Procter & Gamble, where he managed brands in South Cone (Brazil, Argentina and Chile) and held a regional role overseeing all LatAm (Ariel laundry brand). His experience comprises the Household Care (Fabric Care) and the Beauty & Grooming (Shave Care) categories.
In 2009, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio (P&G Headquarters) to drive low tier Fabric Care brands across Emerging Markets (Latin America, EMEA, Asia). In 2011, Thales moved to Gillette as an Associate Director to manage Mid / Low Tier Blades & Razors Globally.
Thales expertise touches upon a number of key skills required for a leadership position in Marketing and Innovation, such as: end-to-end experience: from new product development to shopper marketing; marketing across geographies and cultures, including LatAm and global (emerging and developing markets); and marketing and portfolio strategy, where he won a Cannes Lion.
Thales has a bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica (São Paulo, Brazil) and an Executive MBA from Insper (São Paulo).
Tatiana Sandino, Associate Professor of Business Administration - Accounting and Management
Harvard Business School
Professor Sandino's research examines how organizations use different control mechanisms to lead employees at the executive, middle management, and lower levels toward the achievement of common goals in an organization. She is particularly interested in chain organizations, where control mechanisms can allow firms to successfully replicate a business model across different locations, and in issues concerning executive compensation. Her work has been published in The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, and Contemporary Accounting Research, and it has been featured in media venues such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Huffington Post, and CNBC.
Professor Sandino earned a DBA in accounting and management at Harvard Business School; an MBA at INCAE Business School, Managua, Nicaragua; and a BS in industrial engineering at the Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities and Challenges
Marcio Campos, Founder - PagPop Mobile Payments
Marcio is the founder and CEO of PagPop Mobile Payments, a startup from Brazil. He worked last 4 years building this company and Learning about Payments. Since last year PagPop raised fund from VCs (Cetus Investimentos and Intel Capital ) and he feels that with his strong team and great shareholders, PagPop is ready to be leader in Mobile Payments services and solutions in Brazil and Latam, improving and developing a new way to accept payments and including people in a new social economic environment.
He has B.A in Dentistry at USP and MBA, and has been an entrepreneur since he was 19 years old.
Santiago Bilinkis, Co-Founder - OfficeNet/Quasar Ventures
Santiago Bilinkis is an entrepreneur and technology expert; co-founder of Officenet, the largest office supply company in Argentina and Brazil; and a founding partner at Quasar Ventures, a VC firm which focuses on tech companies in Latin America and around the world. He has launched several other companies over the course of his career, and also writes the blog “Riesgo y Recompensa,” one of the most widely read entrepreneurship blogs in the Spanish language.
Passionate about science and technology, Santiago maintains a strong presence in these industries through talks and presentations. He was selected in 2010 to travel to Silicon Valley’s NASA base to attend Singularity University, a program that covered subjects such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, neuroscience and nanotechnology. Santiago has a regular segment on the popular Argentine radio program “Basta de todo” and was recently on the Discovery Channel’s documentary 2111, exploring the question of what Latin America will be like in 100 years. He has spoken at various companies, public organizations, and universities, including past appearances at HBS and MIT Sloan.
Luiz Gustavo Mariano - Founder and Managing Partner, FLOW Executive Finders (Brazil)
Luiz Mariano is founder and current Managing Partner for FLOW Executive Finders, a true partnership executive search firm. FLOW finds leaders across sectors and disciplines in Latin America, aligning clients' strategies and cultures with their executive talent.
Mariano has worked as a human capital advisor since 2005. Prior to this he worked as a consultant at Ernst & Young, focusing on publicly held companies and financial institutions. He also worked on corporate banking strategy for a Brazilian investment bank. Before entering the corporate world, Luiz was a professional tennis player. He holds a degree in Business Administration with an Economics major from the University of Hawaii, where he was also on the tennis team.
Mr. Matias Recchia - COO, Vostu
Until recently, Matias led Vostu, the largest social and mobile gaming company in Latin America. During his tenure the company grew to over 500 employees and raised over $30MM from first class VC funds. In 2011, Vostu was named one of the top 10 most innovative companies in Brazil by Wired Magazine. In January 2012, Matias changed the focus of the company to mobile development, while consolidating its partnerships with Google and Facebook. Vostu stands today as the largest game developer in Latin America and the #1 gaming partner in the region for both Facebook and Google.
Prior to Vostu, Matias worked in the New York office of McKinsey and Company specializing in media, private equity, and operations. Matias also held positions in Procter and Gamble and was active in private Equity in Latin America. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ramana Nanda, Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Development - International Development / Corporate Performance
Harvard Business School
Ramana Nanda teaches Entrepreneurial Finance in the second year of the MBA program and in HBS executive education offerings.
Ramana's research focuses on how the financial sector impacts innovation and entrepreneurship in the economy. One strand of research examines the role of financial intermediaries such as banks and VCs in shaping the founding and growth of new ventures in a region. A second, related strand, examines how government policy towards the financial sector impacts innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity growth in the economy.
Ramana is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Development and the Center for the Environment at Harvard University and a Research Associate at the Center for Corporate Performance in Arhus, Denmark. He received his Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management and has a BA and MA in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K. He is a recipient of the 2010 Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research.
Prior to starting his Ph.D., Ramana worked at Oliver, Wyman & Company, where he worked primarily with clients in global capital markets as well as in small-business banking. He continues to advise startup ventures on their financing strategies, with a focus on biotechnology and clean energy. He also works with philanthropic investors who use market-based solutions to address poverty and promote entrepreneurship in developing countries.