About the blog

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.

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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 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.

Luiz Amaral

Luiz Amaral es gerente global de Global Forest Watch Commodities. Encabeza el equipo internacional que compromete a las empresas y los gobiernos a utilizar herramientas geoespaciales y tecnologías de la información del World Resources Institute (WRI) con el fin de monitorear las cadenas productivas agrícolas para reducir la deforestación y promover el desarrollo sostenible de la agricultura a nivel mundial. Antes de integrar el WRI, Luiz lideró el equipo de responsabilidad social y medioambiental corporativa en Rabobank Brazil y América del Sur, responsable de los procesos de evaluación de riesgos, que implican una calificación de sostenibilidad innovadora, así como el desarrollo de negocios sostenibles.

Magdalena Barafani

Magdalena Barafani is an economist and consultant in the Development Effectiveness Division (DVF) at IDB Invest, where she focuses on research and project management for development-oriented initiatives. She has more than ten years of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating projects and studies related to productive development and international trade, with a gender perspective. Previously, she worked as a consultant at the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL-IDB). Magdalena holds a master’s degree in economics from Universidad de San Andrés and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Universidad Nacional del Sur, with additional training in data science and leadership from The London School of Economics.

Malini Samtani

Malini is a Climate Change Specialist in the Advisory Division at IDB Invest. She coordinates internal strategic initiatives such as Paris alignment and the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), as well as advises financial institutions clients on integrating climate considerations in their portfolios. Prior to IDB Invest, she held positions as a Program Manager at the Pan American Development Foundation in Suriname and as a Senior Assistant at Deloitte’s Financial Audit Practice in Chicago. She graduated with a Master’s in Development Finance and Latin American Studies from SAIS- Johns Hopkins and a Bachelors in Accounting from Bentley University.