About the blog

Rocio Funes

Rocio Funes Aguilera leads IDB Invest institutional efforts in knowledge management and solutions. Rocio has experience in the design and implementation of IDB Group strategies and business plans to address development challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the organization, Rocio worked as a project manager at Dalberg, a strategic consulting firm focused on private sector development, with public and private sector clients. Previously, Rocio held various positions in UN organizations, including UNDP Liberia. Rocio has a dual degree in Law and Business Administration from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas and has a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Rocío Medina Bolívar

Rocío Medina Bolívar is the Country Manager of the Inter-American Development Bank Group in Belize. Ms. Medina Bolivar manages the IDB Group’s public and private sector in Belize that include IDB Invest and IDB Lab. Before this designation, she was the IDB Group Country Manager in Panama, Country Manager in Trinidad and Tobago, Principal Advisor for the Department of Andean Group Countries (CAN) in Washington D.C., as well as Country Manager in Venezuela. Rocío has extensive experience in public and private sector financing, particularly related to infrastructure projects, as well as capital market transactions. Ms. Medina Bolívar has held various advisory and management positions at the IDB over the past 20 years. She holds a Law Degree (Summa Cum Laude) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and an LLM from Harvard Law School.

Rodolfo Stucchi

Rodolfo Stucchi is Director of Development Impact at IDB Invest. His areas of expertise include development economics, public policy evaluation, and macroeconomics. Rodolfo has extensive experience in portfolio monitoring and management, ex-ante and ex-post economic analysis of public and private sector projects, monitoring and evaluation, impact evaluations, and macroeconomics. Previously, he was Head of Development Impact for the Andean Region and the Southern Cone and Head of Monitoring and Evaluation both at IDB Invest. He also was Senior Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and The World Bank, and Economist for the Government of the Province of Córdoba in Argentina. Rodolfo has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Macroeconomics, The World Bank Economic Review, and Economia, among others. His research focuses on topics related to productivity, employment, innovation, trade, and access to credit. He was also Visiting Professor at Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina), Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo (Bolivia), Universidad de Chile (Chile), and Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen (Germany). Rodolfo holds a PhD in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain) and a BSc in Economics from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba (Argentina).

Rodrigo García

Rodrigo Navas

Rodrigo is the Director of the Corporate Clients team for Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean at IDB Invest, responsible for developing strategies, business plans, client management, and structuring transactions for this region. His professional career in international finance spans more than 25 years in financial institutions in the local, regional, global, and multilateral banking sectors in Costa Rica. During his 20 years with the IDB Group, he has structured multiple transactions in most countries in the region and across different economic sectors, including the Manufacturing Unit, which he led for nearly 8 years. His experience includes developing lending and capital markets operations, as well as equity investments. Rodrigo holds a bachelor's degree from Fidelitas University and a master's degree from FUNDEPOS University, both in Business Administration with an emphasis on Finance and Banking.

Rogerio Basso

Rogerio Basso is a Principal with Impactum Capital Advisors, a boutique capital markets platform specializing in the hospitality and tourism sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean. The firm sources capital for sustainable tourism projects and provides strategic guidance to promote impact investing principles rooted in ESG. A seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience, Rogerio has extensive knowledge in banking, development, and strategy consulting within the real estate and hospitality sectors. He has held a variety of positions at global firms, most recently serving as Head of Tourism at IDB Invest. Rogerio holds a BBA from the College of William & Mary and an MBA from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

Romario Alves Pinto

Romário leads the Trade Supply Chain and Commodity Finance team at IDB Invest, a position he has held since 2017. He develops strategies, mobilizes resources, and implements financial solutions that integrate supply and trade chains to meet clients' needs.  Prior to joining IDB Invest, Romário held various roles at Banco Real-ABN Amro, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Bank of America, where he was pivotal in the business development, implementation, and operation of foreign trade and value chain financial products, treasury management, operations, and credit services. With over 43 years of experience, he is a distinguished expert in transactional and structured financial products. Romário holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of London in Madrid, Spain, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) from the Conselho Regional de Contabilidade de Minas Gerais. He also earned a professional degree in Administration and Accounting from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de MG, Brazil.

Romina Ordoñez

Romina is a Senior Specialist in Rural Development at the IDB, in charge of the development and implementation of the program of the Division of Rural Development, Natural Resources and Disaster Risk Management (RND) in Chile. She previously worked as an economist at IDB Invest focused on the agribusiness and tourism sectors where she measured the development impact of private sector operations and designed and implemented impact evaluations and thematic studies. She has more than 10 years of experience in the design, supervision, and evaluation of development projects. She has a PhD in Agricultural Economics, a Master in Public Policy, a bachelor's degree in Economics and a technical degree in Journalism.

Roni Szwedzki

Roni Szwedzki es economista asociado senior en la Oficina de Evaluación y Supervisión (OVE) del Grupo BID, donde ha trabajado durante varios años en la preparación de numerosas evaluaciones. Antes de unirse al BID, trabajó para la división de inteligencia empresarial de Samsung C&T en el desarrollo de importantes proyectos de construcción en América del Norte y América del Sur, y para las Cámaras de Industrias de Uruguay y Deloitte, centrándose en describir las tendencias económicas y producir pronósticos detallados para los clientes. Roni tiene un MPA de la Escuela de Asuntos Públicos e Internacionales de la Universidad de Columbia, un certificado en finanzas de la Universidad ORT y una licenciatura en economía de la Universidad de la República en Uruguay.

Samantha Todd

Samantha is Development Effectiveness Officer at IDB Invest. She is part of a team that works on the Development Effectiveness Framework for its alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Samantha has an MA in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Data, Economics and Development Policy. Before joining IDB Invest, she worked researching reproductive health in Latin America and the Middle East.

Sandra Catalina Angarita

Catalina is an Investment Officer, Financial Institutions at IDB Invest, which she joined in 2016. She is responsible for structuring solutions to expand access to financial services with banks and financial institutions aimed at development, mainly of Andean countries. She started her professional career in the entity as financial analyst, promoting her growth in the management of financial institutions. Before joining the IDB Group, Catalina started her career in risk analysis at Segurexpo de Colombia and subsequently performed credit analysis at Banco de Bogotá. Catalina earned a master’s degree in financial administration from EADA Business School (Spain) and an undergraduate degree in economics from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia).

Sandra Gómez Paradela

Sandra is an Infrastructure and Climate Change Consultant within the Advisory Services Division at IDB Invest. She focuses on implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures for private sector infrastructure and tourism projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to IDB Invest, Sandra worked at the African Development Bank (AfDB) in the Ivory Coast, where she implemented transport projects and evaluated climate change strategies. Before joining the AfDB, Sandra researched climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in Switzerland. Additionally, Sandra worked at the Metropolitan Transport Authority of Barcelona (ATM) in Spain, where she supported the deployment of electric bus infrastructure. Sandra holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master in Infrastructure Management, both from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. She also holds a postgraduate degree in International Economics and Foreign Trade from the University of Barcelona, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of A Coruña, in Spain.