About the blog

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.

Sandra Reyes

Sandra leads the Financial Institutions team for the Andean region of IDB Invest, which she joined in 2007. She is responsible for the origination and structuring of financing operations for financial intermediaries that have an impact on development. She has structured loan transactions and capital investments in the region, promoting access to financing, the empowerment of women and the mitigation of climate change. Before joining the IDB Group, Sandra worked as a capital markets director in the Colombian investment bank belonging to Grupo Aval. Sandra has an MBA from the INALDE Business School, and an undergraduate degree in finance and international relations from Externado University (both in Colombia).

Sebastián Goris Porta

Sebastián Goris Porta is Partner in charge of Utilities & Energy for the Americas at NTT Data. With over 20 years in the IT industry for the energy sector, both for the Oil & Gas and Gas & Power subsectors and with responsibilities in business development and project execution in Europe and Latin America. Sebastián has lived through the liberalization of the energy sector in the early 2000s, the remarkable transformation it entailed, and the current digitalization that the industry is undergoing in Latin America through multiple projects and services for adopting new technologies. Sebastián believes that Latin America is at a turning point, where the convergence of digitalization and technological innovation is paving the way for a more sustainable and efficient energy transition.

Sergio Díaz

Sergio Navajas

Sergio Navajas is a senior specialist at IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. 

He leads initiatives that harness financial innovation—including tokenization, artificial intelligence, and next-generation payments—to expand economic opportunity and strengthen financial inclusion.

With more than 25 years of experience across multilateral and bilateral organizations, academia, and the private sector, he has played a key role in advancing financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

He has led projects, research, and partnerships that have expanded access to finance across the region.

Today, he focuses on frontier areas that connect emerging technologies with people-centered outcomes in developing markets. 

He holds a doctorate in development and finance from The Ohio State University and has worked with USAID, The Ohio State University, and Banco Bisa in Bolivia.