About the blog

Liliana Castilleja-Vargas

Liliana is a country economist for Bolivia in the Andean Countries Department (CAN) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Previously, Liliana served as Peru's country economist and regional economist in the Southern Cone Countries Department (CSC) at IDB headquarters in Washington. Before joining the IDB, she held senior economist and finance positions at BBVA-Research, ECLAC/UN, and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) in Mexico. Liliana has a PhD in Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK, and a Masters in Finance and a BA in Economics, both from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). Liliana is the author and co-author of several publications and articles on economic, financial, and socioeconomic development issues.

Liliana Olarte Rodríguez

Liliana Olarte es Oficial de la División de Efectividad en el Desarrollo de BID Invest. Actualmente trabaja en conjunto con los clientes de la organización realizando testeos experimentales de soluciones innovadoras y evaluaciones de impacto rigurosas de proyectos aprobados. Adicionalmente, apoya el diseño de proyectos para maximizar su impacto en el desarrollo, brindando apoyo técnico en su conceptualización y mediante el diseño de análisis costo-beneficio y planes de monitoreo y evaluación. Antes de incorporarse a la organización, Liliana se desempeñó como consultora del Banco Mundial en Yakarta (Indonesia), de la División de Integración y Comercio del BID en Washington, y como investigadora de Fedesarrollo y de la Universidad de Los Andes en Bogotá (Colombia). Liliana es Economista e Ingeniera Industrial de la Universidad de Los Andes y tiene una maestría en Administración Pública y Desarrollo Económico de la Universidad de Harvard en los Estados Unidos.

Lina María Rojas Cuéllar

Lina Rojas is a workout expert and business engineer with 15 years of experience in international business transactions. She is responsible for managing impaired loans, guarantees and equity investments. She enforces the IDB Invest’s rights and preserves its capital via negotiations, recoveries and restructurings of non-performing loans and equity positions. Due to her extensive knowledge in this area, she also works in disseminating the "lessons learned" to all IDB Invest. Lina joined the IDB in 2013. She previously worked as a manager in what is today Itau Banco in Colombia. Lina obtained an MBA from American University’s Kogod School of Business and an Industrial Engineer Degree (BS) from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

Lorenzo Colombo

Lorenzo Colombo leads the Digital Strategy business unit for Colombia at NTT DATA. In his professional career, he has held various executive positions in Colombia, the United States, and Latin America, helping clients in their transformation processes through consulting in strategy, operations, and evolution towards new technologies. He holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from the Universidad de los Andes and postgraduate degrees in Business Administration and Corporate Finance.

Lucas de Beaufort

Lucas de Beaufort is a Principal Investment Officer for the Investment Funds team at IDB Invest, where he invests in private equity funds and multi-sector debt throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Lucas has more than 25 years of experience in debt and equity in Latin America. Before joining the IDB Group in 2019, he was responsible for raising and investing the Central American Mezzanine Infrastructure Funds (CAMIF I & II) in LAP Latin American Partners. Lucas also served as Head of Investor Relations. He previously co-managed a $1 billion Latin infrastructure fund at EMP Global. Prior to that, he was Investment Officer for Latin America at the Dutch development bank FMO. Lucas completed a Master's degree in Corporate Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a Master's degree in International Economics and Latin American Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he was a Fulbright scholar.

Lucas Figal Garone

Lucas Figal Garone is Lead Economist of Development Impact for Latin America and the Caribbean at IDB Invest, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

He has more than 15 years of experience leading the design, monitoring, and evaluation of public and private sector development projects with the aim of maximizing their impact. He also leads economic analyses, studies, impact assessments, and testing of innovative solutions for the generation and dissemination of knowledge linked to the operational experience of IDB Invest, its clients, and the public-private sector in the region.

Previously, he worked in the Competitiveness, Technology, and Innovation Division, and the Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness Division at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, D.C.

Lucas is also Visiting Professor in the Economics Department at the Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) and coordinator of the SIDPA productive development initiative.

His areas of expertise and interest include development economics, productive development, impact evaluation, and applied economics. His recent research includes publications in World Development, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Research Policy, The Journal of Development Studies, Small Business Economics, Research in Economics, Journal of Development Effectiveness, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, IDB WP Series, IDB Invest Development through the Private Sector Series, and chapters in several books.

He holds a PhD in Economics from UdeSA, where he also obtained his Master's degree in Economics, after completing his Bachelor's degree in Economics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

Lucas Navarro

Lucas Navarro is an external consultant in the Development Effectiveness Division of IDB Invest and in the Competitiveness, Technology, and Innovation Division of the IDB. He has worked as an academic in the economics departments of Queen Mary University of London, Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Chile), and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), where he has published in specialized academic journals, such as The Economic Journal, Review of Economic Dynamics, and Economics Letters, among others. He has experience leading research projects in the areas of productive development, productivity, and innovation, and in the intersection of these topics with labor economics. Lucas also has experience in the design, execution, cost-benefit analysis, and impact evaluations of development projects. He holds a degree in economics from the National University of Córdoba and a PhD and Master's degree in Economics from Georgetown University.

Luis Alejandro Fernández

Luis Alejandro is a senior investment officer in the Venture Capital Investments Unit at IDB Lab, with more than 12 years of experience in international development finance focused on the private sector. He originates, structures, and supervises a portfolio of development impact investments across Latin America and the Caribbean, including structured debt, venture debt, quasi-equity, and equity investments.
He has strong expertise in negotiation, advanced corporate finance, innovation, impact investing, and venture capital.
Luis Alejandro holds an MBA from INCAE Business School, where he graduated magna cum laude with concentrations in finance and sustainable development. He also holds an advanced specialization in corporate finance from NYU Stern.

Luis Alejandro Mejía

Luis Alejandro is Lead Advisory Officer in IDB Invest, where he oversees the Sustainable Finance advisory practice for investment funds and financial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. During his ten-year role as Senior and Lead Investment Officer at IDB Lab and IDB Invest, he has led and originated various emblematic IDB group funded projects in the region, two of them received the IDB Group “Diversity Award” in 2018 (first version of the Award) and in 2020. He structured the advisory services that allowed first of its kind thematic bonds issuances, such as first sustainable bonds by the banking industry in Uruguay, Central America, and in El Salvador, as the same as first SLB in Latin America. Before joining the IDB group, Luis Alejandro was an entrepreneur and innovator at the corporate and banking private sector, were he led the first worldwide transaction of carbon credits from forestry investments in voluntary carbon markets. He also developed, as a first mover in Latin American financial industry, green financing lines for renewable energy, sustainable transport, and agroforestry activities. In 2012, he received the beyondBanking award in planetBanking category, as an acknowledge to those innovations. Luis Alejandro holds Agricultural Engineering degree, specialized in hydraulics and irrigation at Israel, and a MBA major on Sustainable development from INCAE Business School.

Luis Alejandro Mejía

Luis Alejandro is Lead Advisory Officer in IDB Invest, where he oversees the Sustainable Finance advisory practice for investment funds and financial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

During his ten-year role as Senior and Lead Investment Officer at IDB Lab and IDB Invest, he has led and originated various emblematic IDB group funded projects in the region, two of them received the IDB Group “Diversity Award” in 2018 (first version of the Award) and in 2020. He structured the advisory services that allowed first of its kind thematic bonds issuances, such as first sustainable bonds by the banking industry in Uruguay, Central America, and in El Salvador, as the same as first SLB in Latin America.

Before joining the IDB group, Luis Alejandro was an entrepreneur and innovator at the corporate and banking private sector, were he led the first worldwide transaction of carbon credits from forestry investments in voluntary carbon markets. He also developed, as a first mover in Latin American financial industry, green financing lines for renewable energy, sustainable transport, and agroforestry activities. In 2012, he received the beyondBanking award in planetBanking category, as an acknowledge to those innovations.

Luis Alejandro holds Agricultural Engineering degree, specialized in hydraulics and irrigation at Israel, and a MBA major on Sustainable development from INCAE Business School.

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Luis Carlos Restrepo

Luis Olmedo

Luis Olmedo is Partner in charge of the Strategic Value area for the Americas at NTT Data. With 14 years of experience in strategy projects, he has had the opportunity to execute projects in more than 15 countries, providing a different vision of the challenges that entities face in their transformation strategies. Additionally, he has developed several studies in the Americas on the challenges of digitalization and the benefits for regional development that technology brings with it. Impact, curiosity, and value are the principles that Luis pursues in all the projects in which he is involved.