2019 Latin America Business Conference

Alejandro Werner

Director, Western Hemisphere

International Monetary Fund

Alejandro Werner assumed his current position as Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2013. A Mexican citizen, Mr. Werner has had distinguished careers in the public and private sectors as well as in academia. He served as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico (December 2006–August 2010) and Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at BBVA-Bancomer (August 2011 until end-2012). Previously, he was Director of Economic Studies at the Bank of Mexico and Professor at ITAM, Instituto de Empresa, and Yale University. He has published widely. Mr. Werner was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. Mr. Werner received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

Arminio Fraga

Gavea Investimentos

Founding Partner

Mr. Arminio Fraga is the founding partner at Gavea Investimentos, an investment management firm he founded in August 2003, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Mr.  Fraga was the Chairman of the Board, BM&F Bovespa, Brazil’s securities, commodities and derivatives exchange, from April 2009 to April 2013, and was the President of the Central Bank of Brazil from March 1999 to December 2002.  

From 1993 until his appointment as Governor of the Central Bank, he was Managing Director of Soros Fund Management in New York.  From 1991 to 1992, he was the Director responsible for international affairs at the Central Bank of Brazil.   Earlier in his career, he held positions with Salomon Brothers and Garantia Investment Bank.

Mr.  Fraga has taught at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, the Graduate School of Economics at Getulio Vargas Foundation, the School of International Affairs at Columbia University and the Wharton School.

He is a trustee of Princeton University, and a member of the Group of Thirty and of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of several NGOs.   Mr. Fraga has published widely in the areas of international finance, macroeconomics, and monetary policy.

Mr.  Fraga earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1985, and his BA/MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, in 1981.

Juan Jos├® Echavarr├¡a

General Manager

Central Bank of Colombia

Juan José Echavarría graduated as an Engineer from the Escuela de Minas de Medellín. He studied Business and Economics at Harvard University, and he holds a master's degree in Economics from Boston University and a PhD in Economics from Oxford University.  



He has served in various positions in the public and private sectors, among others as Director of the United Nations Mission to restructure the Coffee Sector in Colombia; Member of the Board of Directors of Banco de la República; Executive Director at FEDESARROLLO; Minister Plenipotentiary at the Colombian Mission to the OAS; Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade; and Economic Research Director at the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC).  



In the academic field, Mr. Echavarría has served as Associate Professor at Universidad del Rosario, and as Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at Universidad Nacional de Colombia.  In January 2017, Mr. Echavarría took office as Governor of the Central Bank of Colombia.

Armando Senra

BlackRock, Inc.

Head of Latin America and Iberia Region

Armando Senra, Managing Director, Head of the Latin America & Iberia Region, member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee, Americas Executive Committee and the Human Capital Committee.



Mr. Senra began his career in 1994 at Merrill Lynch in the US, taking on a number of roles across the firm in both NYC and Princeton. He joined Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 1997, which merged with BlackRock in 2006. In 1998 he became MLIM's Head of Sales for ML Global Wealth Management in EMEA, based in London. From 2000 to 2003, he was Director of MLIM's Private Investors Business in Iberia based in Madrid. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Senra headed MLIM's International Global Wealth Management Business based out of London, leading teams located in EMEA, Asia, US, and Latin America. In 2008, he became the Head of BlackRock's Latin America and Iberia region.



Mr. Senra earned a BA degree in economics and business administration from North Carolina University in 1993.

Elicia Ling

Partner

Paul Hastings

Elicia Ling is a partner in the Latin America practice and the energy and infrastructure practice at Paul Hastings. She is based in the firm’s New York office. Ling has represented sponsors and lenders in a number of financing and infrastructure development transactions throughout Latin America. Her experience encompasses a wide range of sectors, including power, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, shipping, and agricultural commodities.

Pierpaolo Barbieri

CEO and Founder

Ualá

Pierpaolo grew up in Buenos Aires. He studied at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude and his thesis received the Thomas P. Hoopes Prize '14, and in Cambridge, where he was Henry Fiske III Harvard-Cambridge Scholar and obtained his postgraduate in history and economics. He is a researcher of the Harvard Government Kennedy School.  



His first book, Hitler’s Shadow, was published by Harvard in the United States and the United Kingdom, by Penguin Random House in Spain and Latin America, by Mondadori in Italy and Citic in China.   His articles have been published by El País in Spain, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, New Republic, Weekly Standard, Profile, Clarín and La Nación.  



He is also the executive director of Greenmantle, a geopolitical and macroeconomic consultancy based in New York. Pierpaolo was a partner of the Brevan Howard Argentina fund, at the time the largest investment dedicated to Argentina.