About the blog

Mauricio Jimenez Pijoan

Mauricio Jimenez Pijoan has more than eight years of experience in strategic consulting in the Consumer Goods, Retail, Automotive, and Financial Services sectors. He has led the definition and implementation of business and digital strategies for leading companies in these markets in several countries in Europe and America. Currently, he leads the strategy consulting practice for the industrial sector at NTT DATA Mexico.

Mauro de la Vega

Mercedes Gárate

Mercedes Garate is an industrial engineer specializing in industrial organization by the ETSII-UPM in Madrid; she is director of the strategic consulting practice for the hospitality, Transport & Leisure line at NTTdata in Spain. She has more than 15 years of work experience, having developed transformational projects and strategic thinking in the field of land and air transport for public clients such as Renfe, Metro de Madrid, Metro de Barcelona, AENA, or Enaire or private clients such as Iberia or IAG group.

Michelle Espinach

Michelle Espinach, Sustainable Banking Manager at Banco Promerica Costa Rica, leads all initiatives related to the bank's strategy to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Those include, among others, financing structures for new products, preaching with the example and measure the impact of all the efforts that the bank and its staff are putting into the sustainable strategy. One of her objectives is for Banco Promerica to become the first Costa Rican bank to issue green or sustainable bonds.

Michelle Shayer

Michelle Muhringer Shayer is a lawyer specialized in corporate sustainability management with an MBA in environmental management from the University of Sao Paulo. She works as a senior environmental and social specialist in the Social, Environment and Corporate Governance (ESG) Division at IDB Invest. Michelle currently coordinates the gender risk assessment process at IDB Invest. She has also worked in sustainable development in the private sector (mining, infrastructure, industrial, financial institutions, consultancies) and in non-profit organizations, and has more than 15 years of experience in assessing social impacts.

Milagros Rivas

Milagros Rivas Saiz is Division Chief, Advisory Services, at IDB Invest, which she joined in 2021. She is responsible for leading the Climate Change, Gender and Inclusion, SME Development, Digitalization, and Public-Private Partnerships areas. Before joining the IDB Group, Milagros worked for the International Finance Corporation as Global Head of Strategy Director and Global Head of Advisory Services, a position in which she helped develop highly sustainable projects and open markets to private investment. Previously, she was an Executive Committee member of Acciona Energía. Milagros has extensive experience in consulting, from her work at McKinsey & Co. Milagros earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). https://www.linkedin.com/in/milagros-rivas-saiz/

Milena Correia Cafruni

Milena Correia Cafruni is a Social and Environmental Officer at IDB Invest. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo and a Master's degree in International Cooperation and Development from La Sapienza University of Rome. Milena has been working since 2014 with issues of identification and management of social impacts and stakeholder engagement. At IDB Invest, she acts as focal point in the identification and management of gender risks in DSP/SEG.

Mónica Ballesteros

Monica is a Public Policy Consultant for The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of the Economist Group. Monica is the project manager for the Global Microscope, an index that assesses the environment enabling financial inclusion in 55 countries across the world. Prior to her work at the EIU, Mónica was part of the G20 team at the Mexican Ministry of Finance, where she focused on the financial inclusion agenda. She also worked for a strategic consulting firm in Mexico, where she designed and implemented communication and crisis management strategies. Monica has a Master's degree in International Affairs from Tufts University, where she majored in international finance and development economics. She has a BA in Political Science from Wellesley College.

Mónica Landaeta

As funding and capital market expert at IDB Invest, she structures and executes IDB Invest bond issuances in global capital markets and implements investor relationship activities. Prior joining the IDB Group, she worked for ten years in different roles at Latin-American Development Bank (CAF) and Central Bank of Venezuela, including funding officer, operation officer, short term and foreign exchange trader. Miss Landaeta holds a graduate degree in Finance and Business Management from Escuela de Organization Industrial EOI – Spain, and Georgetown University, USA, respectively.

Mónica Navarrete

Mónica is an Investment Officer at IDB Invest, responsible for leading transactions in the Agribusiness sector in Central America and the Caribbean. Mónica has more than 16 years of experience in banking and finance in Latin America and the Caribbean, twelve of them in the IDB Group, leading and structuring complex transactions with clients in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in sectors such as Agribusiness, Energy, Manufacturing and Financial Institutions. Before joining the IDB Group, Mónica served as Financial Planning Manager at Digicel Group El Salvador and held the position of Risk Officer at Citigroup N.A. Mónica studied Industrial and Systems Engineering at Tec de Monterrey (ITESM, in Mexico) and has master's degrees in Business Administration (MBA) from Thunderbird (USA), and in Finance from the business school at Tec de Monterey (EGADE, in Mexico).

Monica Palomino

Monica Palomino is a Development Effectiveness Consultant in the Development Effectiveness Division at IDB Invest. She supports the implementation of the Impact Management Framework, ensuring that IDB Invest operations deliver social, environmental, and economic benefits across Latin America and the Caribbean, with a particular focus on the Andean Region. Previously, Monica worked at Financiera de Desarrollo Territorial (Findeter), Colombia’s national development bank. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the London School of Economics and both a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Economics from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Mónica Salazar

Mónica is an Investment Management Officer in the Equity & Mezzanine Finance Team at IDB Invest, which she joined in 2017. She is responsible of sourcing, selecting, originating, structuring, closing and supporting the supervision of the equity and mezzanine transactions (including venture capital), across all sectors of IDB Invest. Before joining the IDB Group, she worked as an Investment Analyst in the Private Equity Division of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF, in Spanish), performing financial analysis and portfolio valuations of direct investments and private equity funds (approx. $600 million of AUM). She also has experience in project assessment in the financial and energy sectors in Venezuela. Mónica earned a master’s degree in Economic Development and Growth from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain) and has an undergraduate degree in Business Economics from Universidad Metropolitana, in Caracas (Venezuela).