Wharton Latin America Conference 2013

José Guimarães Monforte

Managing Partner
Emax

José Guimarães Monforte was the Founder and CEO of PRAGMA; is a member of the Board of Tribanco, and Promon. He was a board member of JHSF, SABESP, Claro, Banco Nossa Caixa, Canbrás, Pini Editora, Caramuru Alimentos, Klicknet, Drogaraia, Agrenco do Brasil, Natura Cosmetics and Vivo. José was also a member of the New Market Listing Committee. He is a member of the IBRI Ethics Committee and the ABERJE Advisory Council. He was also Coordinator of Bovespa’s Capital Opening Committee, Vice-President of ANBID and board member of the São Paulo Commodities Exchange Clearinghouse. He also served as an executive in various banks and companies, such as BANESPA, Banco Merrill Lynch, Banco Citibank N.A., VBC Energia S/A and Janos Comércio, Administração e Participações Ltda. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidade Católica de Santos.

Renato Monteiro

VP Business Development and M&A
Braskem America, Inc.

VP Business Development and M&A Braskem America since 2011, was responsible for the $328 million Dow PP business acquisition and for the revitalization plan for the Braskem Marcus Hook plant, including the acquisition of the splitters and $45 million investment.

Prior to his current role, Mr Monteiro was VP Finance & Strategy for Braskem America.  From 2006 until 2009, Renato held a number of positions within Braskem SA, including Planning, Strategy and M&A Director.  In that capacity, he was responsible for the $350 million acquisition of Sunoco Chemicals in 2010, which was renamed to Braskem America.

Prior to joining Braskem, he served as Senior Engagement Manager for McKinsey & Company.  During his 11 years at McKinsey, Renato worked in engagements across five (5) continents from his base offices in  São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Lisbon.

Renato has a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree from ITA – Aeronautics Technology Institute (Brazil) and an MBA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

José de Sá

Partner
Bain & Company, Brazil

José de Sá is a partner at Bain & Company in the São Paulo office. He joined Bain in 2008 and has more than 15 years of experience in management consulting.

José has worked with top management of large national and multinational groups in several industries such as oil & gas, petrochemical, utilities, and consumer goods, in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela, the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain, South Africa and Angola.

José has led engagements addressing business unit strategy, alliance and JV strategy, organization and organizational transformation, corporate finance, risk management, portfolio management, decision theory, socioeconomic development, marketing and performance improvement.

Prior to joining Bain, he worked for 3 years at Monitor Group in Brazil, as a Partner in the Energy, Consumer Goods, and Sustainability area, and for 4 years at A. T. Kearney, co-leading the Energy Practice in Latin America.

He graduated in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal da Bahia (Brazil), and holds an MBA from Johnson School at Cornell University (USA). At Johnson School, José was a Teaching Assistant in Financial Strategy and founding member of the Latin American Business Association (LABA).

He lived for 5 years in the USA and for 2 years in Chile. He has dual Brazilian/ French citizenship, and is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.

Daniel Gottlieb

Assistant Professor of Business Economics & Public Policy
The Wharton School
(Moderator)

Daniel Gottlieb is an Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has a Masters in Economics from Getulio Vargas Foundation and a B.A. in Economics from IBMEC Business School, both in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to joining the Wharton School, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Princeton Economic Theory Center at Princeton University. His research focuses on contracting and behavioral economics. One recent project studies the structure of life insurance policies, and determinants of lapsation. Another project studies optimal contracts in the presence of adverse selection and moral hazard. His teaching focuses on risk management and behavioral economics.

Edrizio De La Cruz

Co-Founder & CEO
Grupo Regalii

Edrizio De La Cruz is Co-Founder & CEO at Grupo Regalii, which enables Latino immigrants in the U.S. to send gift cards (a “Regalii”) via text message to families in Latin America for supermarkets and stores where they already shop, thus, providing the only form of remittance that’s free and easy.

Prior to Regalii, Edrizio graduated from The Wharton School with an MBA. Prior to Wharton, he spent nearly four years in Finance – First as Investment Banker, then as a Private Equity Investor. This was a phenomenal experience where he worked on strategies next to CEO's of Fortune 500 companies as well as startups.

In 2006, Edrizio graduated cum laude from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business in New York with a B.B.A. in finance. While at Baruch, he was an aircraft engineering technician for Swissair at JFK airport.

Juan Carlos Garcia

VP of eCommerce
Walmart de Mexico and Central America

Juan Carlos Garcia earned a Bs. in Economics from ITESM-Campus Monterrey and graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with an MBA in 1999.

Before attending Wharton, Juan Carlos worked in Commercial Banking and Investment Banking in BBVA Bancomer and Merrill Lynch, where he worked in M&A, Corporate Finance and Risk Management.

He has been a serial entrepreneur in mostly in the eCommerce and Microfinance Industries in Mexico.   He has been Founder & CEO of Decompras.com, Banco Amigo and PlazaVIP.com, all of whom were successfully acquired by larger players such as Telefónica of Spain and América Móvil (Grupo Carso).

He has been working with several trade associations such as AMIPCI where he was VP of eCommerce and also participates as Mentor in Endeavor Mexico.

Juan Carlos Garcia recently joined Walmart de Mexico and Central America as VP of eCommerce.  He is married and father of three kids.

Rogelio de los Santos

Managing Partner
Alta Ventures Mexico

Rogelio de los Santos is a serial entrepreneur that promotes the venture capital industry in Mexico at the same time that he serves as Managing Partner of Alta Ventures Mexico and the Kickstart Seed program.

Mr. de los Santos serves on the Monterrey Tec (ITESM) Board, Babson College Global Advisory Board, Enlace E+E Founding Board, and Endeavor Mexico Board. He currently participates as a mentor in Endeavor Mexico and Enlace E+E, Mexico’s top two entrepreneurial mentor organizations. He participates in the following directorships in Energryn, Diverza, Juxta Labs, MFM and Citivox.

Mr. de los Santos received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Monterrey Tec (ITESM) in 1992 and a Master in Business Leadership from Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership in 1998.

Keith Schuman

CEO and Co-Founder
Azahar Coffee Company

Keith is the CEO and a co-founder of Azahar Coffee Company. The company is the first to execute a vertically integrated operating model within the specialty coffee space. Today, Azahar Coffee is exported to South Korea, Hong Kong, Bolivia, and the United States. Azahar is also sold domestically within Colombia and the company will look to build out its operating platform in the Colombia.

Azahar was founded and implemented using it’s proprietary strategic philosophy; VAS – value added at the source. The primary concept is to decommodify, add tangible and intangible value added processes throughout the supply chain while retaining the value added processes in the country of origin.

Keith previously worked in the Investment Banking Division at Citigroup in the Global Industrials Group.

Brett Lewis

Co-Founder
SkylBridge
(Moderator)

Brett was born and raised in New York City. Brett pursued his undergraduate studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and Sciences Po in Paris. Brett completed his MSc at the London School of Economics and went on to work in strategy consulting at Bain & Company in London. Brett took six months off to join the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consultancy, before pursuing the joint Wharton/Lauder program where he is an MBA/MA candidate. During the MBA program Brett worked in venture capital investing in Brazil.

Sebastian Apud

Associate
Developing World Markets

Sebastian joined Developing World Markets (DWM) in 2010. As a member of the private equity team, he is primarily responsible for MFI due diligence, financial modeling, sale of investments, and monitoring of equity investments. His coverage includes Latin America, South Asia, and Eastern Caucus region and investments in microfinance, microhousing, education lending, and SME lending. He previously worked as a consultant for the Latin America Debt Team at DWM. Prior to joining DWM, Sebastian worked as an M&A investment banking analyst at Lazard in New York as part of the Metals & Mining team on projects ranging from sell-sides, buy-sides, LBOs to debt restructurings and a strategic defense, both domestically and internationally. He also spent time working in emerging markets investment banking at MBA Banco de Inversiones in Argentina. During his undergraduate education, he did a research project on microfinance in Venezuela for the World Bank.

Sebastian received his BSc in Economics with a Concentration in Business & Public Policy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Italian and is currently a board member at the Microfinance Club of New York and the UPenn Rugby Club Alumni Board.

Natalia Mouhapé

Senior Investment Manager
Bamboo Finance

Natalia Mouhapé is a Senior Investment Manager with Bamboo Finance since November 2009. Bamboo Finance is a global private equity firm with USD$ 250M AUM, representing a portfolio of 35 investments in 24 countries with offices in Bogota, Geneva, Luxembourg, San Francisco, and Singapore. Bamboo Finance invests in companies that expand access and improve quality and affordability of essential products and services for low income populations, who represent the fastest growing consumer segment in emerging markets.

Natalia is based in Buenos Aires and is dedicated to the Latin America region. She is responsible for monitoring Oasis Fund’s portfolio through Board positions, generating new deal flow, and structuring and executing transactions. She also contributes to portfolio strategy and sits on the committee that pre approves new investments. Natalia has over 16 years of experience in M&A transactions with special focus in the southern cone of Latin America. Prior to joining Bamboo Finance, Natalia was Partner and Director with Argentina’s largest M&A advisor, Infupa. She worked on several M&A transactions in Argentina advising international clients in different industries such as banking and insurance, food, construction materials and media. She was also engaged in debt restructuring processes, fairness opinions and other special assignments. Before joining Infupa, Natalia worked in the M&A department of JP Morgan in Buenos Aires, and during the summer of 2000 she worked in the M&A group of Merrill Lynch in New York. Natalia received a BA in Business and a CPA degree from the Universidad Católica Argentina, where she graduated with honors. Natalia received an MBA from the Wharton School in 2001.

José Antonio Rosas

CEO
Universidad Tecnologica del Perú

José Antonio Rosas is the CEO of Universidad Tecnologica del Perú, UTP, a subisidary of Peruvian conglomerate Intercorp. UTP is one of the largest higher education instittuions in Peru, with more than35,000 active students. Intercorp is a leading business conglomerate, with operations in financial services, retail, real estate and education.  Mr. Rosas joined Intercorp in 1998.  He served as Chief Financial Officer for the conglomerate and some of the subsidiaries, including Interbank and Supermercados Peruanos.  He was alsao a Partner at Nexus Group, a private equity management firm related to Intercorp.  Before joining Intercorp, Mr. Rosas worked for Société Générale in New York, the Boston Consulting Group in Mexico, and two stock brokerage firms in Peru.  Mr. Rosas received bachelor degrees in business administration and accounting from Universidad del Pacífico in Lima and a masters degree in business administration with distinction from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Stranko

Public Policy Advisor
Latin America Venture Capital Association (LAVCA)
(Moderator)

James Stranko is LAVCA's Public Policy Advisor and former Director of Communications, and works to develop the organization’s strategic partnerships and public policy work. He is also the editor of Avenida America, a blog covering major policy and economics issues in the Americas.

Prior to joining LAVCA, James worked with the Americas policy team at Facebook and the Latin American sovereign and credit risk team at Morgan Stanley while completing his M.A. Before beginning his Masters, James was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico City, helping Ashoka Emprendedores Sociales expand their outreach and fundraising capabilities within Mexico. Prior to that, James was a financial PR and public affairs consultant in London working with a range of international clients.

James holds an MA in International Economics and Latin American Studies from SAIS-Johns Hopkins and a BA in Political Science from Columbia University. While at Columbia, James spent a semester in Buenos Aires studying at UBA. He was also a part time student in ITAM’s MBA program during his Fulbright year in Mexico. He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Italian.

Alberto Ardura

Head of Latin America Capital Markets and Treasury Solutions
Deutsche Bank, AG

Alberto Ardura, Managing Director, is the Head of Capital Markets and Treasury Solutions Group for Latin America at Deutsche Bank. He is responsible for the Client Coverage and Capital Markets groups of DB throughout LatinAmerica, overlooking Deutsche Bank’s relationships with Governments, Corporates, Banks and Financial Institutions across LatAm.

He brings over 25 years of experience in Debt Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Fixed Income and Currency trading and derivatives.

Before this position, Mr. Ardura was Merrill Lynch’s Chief Country Officer for Mexico and Head of Merrill Lynch's LatinAmerican Institutional Client Coverage Group. He was also responsible for its Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities business in Mexico for over 7 years.

Over the years, Mr. Ardura has executed local and cross-border capital markets transactions for over 200 issuers throughout Latin America, including numerous Governments, Corporations and Financial Institutions. He opened the Mexican Capital Market for Medium Term Notes, the Euro Local Currency markets for foreign issuers in LatAm, and participated in LatAm's first Perpetual and Century Bond transactions.

He previously headed various Corporate Finance, Trading and Sales groups at Banca Promex, Valores Finamex International, ING Bank NY, and Banca Serfín.

Mr. Ardura holds a degree in Business and Finance from the Universidad Panamericana, in Mexico City.

Jose Maria Farres

Managing Director, LATAM Investors Sales
Citi

BS in Physics and an MBA from IESE, started his career at Citibank Madrid in 1996, where he ran various positions in the area of derivatives sales, getting to lead the sales team of Equity Derivatives for Spain and Portugal. In late 2003, he joined as Managing Director at Banco Santander, where he took charge of the sales area of derivatives and structured products to retail customer base and business of the Bank. Subsequently, he organized and led the overall structuring teams in Equity, Rates, Credit, FX and Commodities markets area. Return to Citigroup as Head of the Investor Sales in Latin America, leading a team of over 25 people operating in 22 countries in the region.

Luis Oganes

Head of Latin America Research
J.P. Morgan

Luis Oganes is Head for Latin America at the Emerging Markets Research group of J.P. Morgan in New York, where he started working in 1997.  Luis publishes regularly about the economy, markets and the political situation of Latin America, and provides investment recommendations to institutional investors on the region’s external debt, local market bonds and currencies.  On several occasions, he has left his country coverage duties temporarily to participate in advisory projects with some governments in the region.  His previous professional engagements include various teaching positions at the Department of Economics of New York University between 1993 and 1997, a researcher position at the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank in 1994, and an analyst position at Grupo Apoyo, an economic think-tank in Lima, Peru between 1989 and 1992.  Luis obtained his Ph.D. degree in Economics from New York University in 1998 and his B.A. degree in Economics from Universidad de Lima in 1990.

Alberto M. Ramos

Head of Latam Economics
Goldman Sachs

Alberto is head of the Latin America Economic Research team in the Global Investment Research Division. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2003 as a vice president and was named managing director in 2009.

Prior to joining the firm, Alberto was a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, for six years and worked with Argentina, Brazil and Turkey, researching issues related to debt sustainability, fiscal-monetary dominant regimes and sovereign debt restructurings. His written work has been published in the Journal of Applied Economics, IMF Working Papers, and Issues in Financial Regulation, a series of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, among others.

Alberto earned an MA and PhD in Economics, specializing in finance, money and banking, from The University of Chicago in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He has also taught economics and finance at The University of Chicago and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal.

Alberto was born in Mozambique, previously lived in Portugal, and resides in Manhattan..