About the blog

Juan G. Flores

Juan G. Flores is a Strategy, Planning and Innovation Officer at IDB-Invest’s Strategy and Development Department where he analyzes challenges and opportunities for the private sector, with emphasis on Telecommunications, Media and Technology, Manufacturing, and Gender and Diversity. Juan has 11 years of experience in originating, structuring and supervising projects at the IDB Group, and performed a special assignment as Transaction Management Officer at the European Investment Bank. Prior to the IDB Group, Juan was Financial Controller at KFC Group Ecuador, and Chief Financial Officer of KFC Venezuela. Juan is a Certified Public Accountant, holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Finance from Universidad Católica del Ecuador, and a Master’s degree in Finance from Kogod School of Business at American University.

Juan Parodi

Juan Parodi is a Principal Investment Officer at IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank. Juan is based in São Paulo and leads IDB Invest efforts in the Southern Cone under the Corporates Division responsible for a broad range of sectors such as housing, pharmaceutical, wholesale, pulp and paper, energy transition minerals, mining, and others. Juan also leads IDB Invest Amazonia Forever Roadmap which aims to increase private sector activity and impact in all eight countries of the Amazonia basin. Prior joining IDB Invest, Juan worked for more than 17 years in commercial and investment banking in São Paulo and New York in institutions like Banco Santander, Société Générale and Itaú BBA. During his extensive experience, Juan was responsible to structure a wide range of local and offshore debt and equity products in most Latin American countries, Mexico and the US. Previous experience sectors include soft commodities, oil and gas, agribusiness, and retail amongst others. Juan has a Bachelor of Commerce, with a finance major from Saint Mary´s University in Canada and a Master’s Degree in Banking from Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil.

Juan Roberto Paredes

Juan Roberto Paredes is a Senior Renewable Energy Specialist at the Energy Division of the Infrastructure and Environment Department at the Interamerican Development Bank, the largest provider of multilateral finance in Latin America and the Caribbean. Throughout his career he has advised several governments, energy regulators and public utilities in the region on topics such as grid integration of variable renewable energies, smart grids, electric mobility and regional electricity integration. Prior to his role at the IDB, he had the opportunity to work for private sector consultancies and clean energy developers in Germany and the UK, gaining extensive experience by assessing more than 1GW of wind and solar projects. Mr. Paredes has B.Sc. degrees in in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from the University of Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and a M.Sc. degree in Renewable Energies from Oldenburg University in Germany. He also has executive program degrees in Infrastructure from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Energy and Climate Change from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies from Stanford University.

Julia Johannsen

Julia Johannsen is a Representative of the IDB Group in Bolivia, she has a Ph.D. and a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Göttingen in Germany. She joined the Inter-American Development Bank in 2008 and since then she has worked in the Social Protection and Health Division of the Social Sector, where she has led the dialogue and operational work with counterparts in several countries on public policy issues. Before assuming the Country Office in Bolivia, she was Sector Lead Specialist in Social Protection in Ecuador, where she worked since 2015. Previously, she was Senior Social Protection Specialist in Bolivia for the period 2010-2015

Julián González Martínez

Julián González es consultor en el equipo de servicios de asesoría en BID Invest. En el equipo de cambio climático, se especializa en asesorar proyectos de infraestructura y energía, así como de manufactura y producción sostenible. Julián es ingeniero mecánico y ambiental y cuenta con una maestría en tecnologías de energía renovable. Ha trabajado en proyectos de hidrógeno verde, movilidad eléctrica, generación con renovables, distritos térmicos, sostenibilidad corporativa, y descarbonización de operaciones. Está basado en la Representación en Colombia del BID.

Juliana Giraldo Martínez

Juliana Martínez

Juliana Martínez is an associate professor in the World Languages and Cultures Department at American University (Washington, D.C), where she is also part of the advisory board of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program; and she is an affiliated researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Center for Anti-Racist Research and Policy. In addition, she is Director of Research and Consulting for Sentiido, a Colombian organization that specializes in sexual and gender diversity. Juliana researches, writes and teaches about sexual and gender diversity, feminisms, trans and gender studies; and equity, diversity and inclusion.

Julius Landell-Mills

Julius leads the Equity and Mezzanine Team at IDB Invest, which he joined in 2020.  He is responsible for developing and structuring the value proposition in IDB Invest direct equity and mezzanine investments. His responsibilities include developing the business strategy for these products and for the relationships with other private equity investors and development finance institutions (DFIs), either of which may become co-investors with IDB Invest. Before joining IDB Invest, he was a Managing Partner at Asesores Mesoamericanos, a strategy consulting and M&A boutique firm in San José, Costa Rica. Earlier, he was a Founding Partner at Mesoamerica Investments, an investment bank with offices in San José, Costa Rica and Bogotá, Colombia, that focused on private equity and M&A. At CDC Group, a DFI owned by the UK government, in London, Julius worked in project finance, where he contributed to establishing the Group’s first venture capital fund in Central America.  Julius began his career in finance as an Associate at JP Morgan’s London office. For five years, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Fundes, an NGO specializing in the development of SMEs in Latin America. Julius earned a master´s degree in business administration (MBA) from INSEAD (France) and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cambridge University (UK).

Karina Azzinnari

Karina Azzinnari es jefa de la División de Sinergias Público-Privadas en BID Invest. Anteriormente, ocupó varios cargos en el Grupo BID como ser asesora del vicepresidente del sector privado y, antes de ello, especialista en mercados financieros tanto en el sector público como en el sector privado del BID. Con amplia experiencia en originación, estructuración y procesamiento de operaciones con y sin garantía soberana, Karina también fue consultora en el departamento de finanzas del Banco Mundial tras ocupar diversos cargos en entidades del sector financiero. Karina cuenta con una maestría en economía aplicada de la Universidad John Hopkins y una maestría en finanzas de la Universidad George Washington, habiendo obtenido su título de economista en la Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay.

Karina Gómez

Karina Gómez Gálvez is the Commercial and Social Manager at Fondo Esperanza, with extensive experience in entrepreneurship, education, gender, impact studies, and microfinance for the most vulnerable sectors. She is responsible for creating and implementing the adult training model to promote entrepreneurship and empowerment for nearly 130,000 women entrepreneurs supported by Fondo Esperanza. Responsible for the creation of the institution's impact measurement and management system. She is an adjunct professor at the School of Social Work of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2021, she was part of the research team for the Solidarity and Social Investment Fund (Fosis) of the Government of Chile as an expert advisor for evaluating the impact perception of the Yo Emprendo program. In 2011, she was a consultant for creating educational modules to promote female entrepreneurship for Fundación Promoción y Desarrollo de la Mujer (Prodemu), Government of Chile. In 2009, she was part of the consulting team of the IDB, Un techo para mi País, for developing the Microcredit Program. She is a Social worker from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, a Diploma in Adult Learning and Education from Universidad Alberto Hurtado, a Diploma in Business Administration, and a Master in Community Social Psychology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Karisa Maia Ribeiro

She is a transport engineer specializing in urban planning and mobility, managing large infrastructure projects, analyzing economic feasibility, and planning and modeling transport systems. She holds a master's and doctorate in Civil Engineering from Nagoya, Japan, and a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. With 20 years of experience working in Brazil, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, Karisa has worked with and coordinated multidisciplinary teams, seeking to develop various businesses and opportunities in the public and private sectors, with a focus on project management, economic feasibility analysis studies, urban mobility and accessibility, and optimization of resources and capital in large infrastructure projects. As a senior transportation specialist at the IDB, Karisa is dedicated to designing, managing, and monitoring major infrastructure projects in Brazil and the Bank's portfolio in the region.

Karla Bertocco Trindade

Karla Bertocco Trindade is partner at Jive - Maua Capital, a leading Brazilian asset manager, where she heads the infrastructure division. Karla has more than 15 years of leadership experience in the infrastructure industry in Brazil. In 2019 she served as managing director of the Government and Infrastructure division at BNDES – Brazilian Development Bank, and prior to this she was the CEO of SABESP – São Paulo Water and Sanitation Company (2018), a mixed capital company responsible for providing services to more than 25 million people in the state of São Paulo. She was also Undersecretary for Partnerships and Innovation at the São Paulo State Government (2015-2018), in charge of PPP’s and privatizations in different sectors, and before that, director of Artesp and Arsesp. She joined Maua as partner in 2020 and in 2023 was appointed as President of the Board of Directors of SABESP.