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Discover best practices and trends from the Latin American and Caribbean private sector shared by IDB Invest specialists in agribusiness, development impact, energy, financial institutions, transportation, and more.

 

Blog authors

  • Carmen Blandón

    Senior Specialist at BID Lab, Carmen is a career economist, serves as the Discovery Officer for El Salvador at BID Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. She has been with the institution for over five years, promoting inclusion through co-creating innovative projects with entrepreneurs, startups, and other ecosystem members. Before this role, she led entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives and contributed to the competitive development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Carmen graduated with an MBA from the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas" and studied Economics at the University of El Salvador. Additionally, she has received international training in methodologies and tools for developing innovation strategies and user-centered design.

  • Carole Sanz-Paris

    Carole Sanz-Paris leads the debt capital markets team at IDB Invest. She is a specialist in fixed income, structured finance transaction execution, sale-side research, and credit analysis. She defines herself as passionate about investing with social impact. Carole has more than 20 years of experience in global capital markets; she has been responsible for the structuring, execution and placement of many complex financial structures, including securitizations. She has published extensively on the relative value of fixed income products and credit analysis, having developed her interest in social responsibility and impact investing while earning her Executive MBA from Oxford University.

  • Casey Weston

    Casey Weston leads LinkedIn’s Data for Impact program, which shares aggregated data and insights with governments and leaders to inform public policy, program design, and research. He previously worked at the intersection of data and policy with the New York City Department of Health, the World Bank, and leading U.S. and international financial institutions. He holds a master’s degree in urban planning from New York University and a bachelor’s from Stanford University.

  • Cassia Peralta

    Cassia Peralta es consultora independiente de MBA y se desempeñó como oficial de inversión de BID Invest hasta mayo de 2017. Su trabajo se centraba en la estructuración de inversiones sólidas que promuevan el desarrollo a través de prácticas de negocio sostenibles. Cassia nació en Brasil y tiene un MBA en Marketing y Emprendimiento de Wharton School. Es además autora galardonada del libro "Born in Rio".

  • Celina Camilletti

    Celina is a development effectiveness consultant in the Development Effectiveness Division at IDB Invest. She contributes to the development of knowledge products related to IDB Invest operations, as well as to the collection and analysis of data on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, employment, and access to credit. Before joining IDB Invest, Celina worked as a research assistant on projects related to international trade, tourism, and environmental economics, and gained experience as technical staff at public-sector institutions. Celina holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and is currently completing a master’s degree in economics at the same university.

  • César Carcelén

    Cesar is a Sustainable Business and MSME Specialist in the Advisory Services Division of IDB Invest. He is responsible for helping financial institutions adopt sustainable financing strategies, scale financial products focused on sustainability and aligned with the SDGs, develop thematic debt instruments, and promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups. Before joining IDB Invest he worked as a Senior Investment Officer at the impact investing fund, responsAbility Investment AG, where he focused on enhancing financial inclusion for MSMEs in the region, green credit, and sustainable housing finance. Prior to that he worked at Planet Rating with the Director for Latin America where he developed evaluations to assess the financial strength and social performance of microfinance institutions. He also worked at KPMG in the area of Risk Advisory Services. Cesar has a degree in Business Administration and Accounting, an MBA with a focus on Innovation from the EGADE Business School (TEC de Monterrey), as well as postgraduate specializations in Sustainable Finance and Climate Finance from Yale and the Frankfurt School.

  • Chitralekha Deopersad

    Chitralekha Deopersad es oficial social y ambiental de BID Invest con sede en la Oficina de País de Jamaica. Trabaja con clientes del sector privado en América Latina y el Caribe en los requisitos de protección ambiental (ambiental, social, de salud y seguridad) en apoyo de la evaluación del proyecto y el cumplimiento de las normas locales e internacionales. También participa en la racionalización del cambio climático y la gestión del riesgo de desastres y la adaptación a proyectos del sector privado. En su capacidad anterior, apoyó al sector público dentro de la División de Cambio Climático y Sostenibilidad del BID en la Oficina de País de Bahamas. Chitralekha también fue científico ambiental / costero en Trinidad y Tobago durante varios años y tiene una maestría en ingeniería y gestión costera de la Universidad de West Indies, St. Augustine.

  • Christian Parra

    Christian is part of the Climate Change Team of Advisory Services Division at IDB Invest, which he joined in 2017. He is responsible for coordinating advisory projects in the energy sector. Before joining the IDB Group, he held positions as: National Director of Climate Change Mitigation for the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment, Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Coordinator at the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), Coordinator of the Low Emission Capacity Building program of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), researcher at Ecuador’s National Institute of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, officer at the Ministry of Energy of Ecuador, as well as independent consultant for the private sector. Christian has a PhD from Valladolid University (Spain), holds a master’s degree in sustainable energy development from the University of Calgary (Canada) and an undergraduate degree as agricultural engineer from The central University of Ecuador.

  • Christopher Burt

    Christopher Burt is a Corporate Governance Officer within the Environmental, Social and Governance Division of IDB Invest, based in Buenos Aires, helping fostering the adoption of stronger corporate governance practices within the private sector across the Latin America and Caribbean region.

  • Colin McKee

    Colin McKee es oficial ambiental y social de BID Invest en Washington, D.C. Colin trabaja con intermediarios financieros (IFs), energía renovable y clientes agroindustriales, y ofrece servicios de asesoramiento para una mejor gestión de los riesgos y oportunidades medioambientales. Más recientemente, su trabajo ha explorado el uso de imágenes satelitales y visualización de datos para manejar el riesgo de cartera de instituciones financieras, particularmente relacionado con la deforestación. Antes de ingresar al Grupo BID, Colin fue consultor de sostenibilidad para PwC en Londres, trabajando con clientes en materia de financiamiento sostenible, evaluación del impacto socioeconómico y cambio climático. También ha trabajado extensamente como consultor para la CFI y el Programa de Medio Ambiente de las Naciones Unidas. Colin tiene una maestría conjunta en Economía Internacional de Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) y un MBA de la Escuela de Negocios francesa INSEAD.

  • Coronavirus Impact Dashboard Team

    The dashboard team leaders are Oscar Mitnik from IDB and Patricia Yañez-Pagans from IDB Invest. The dashboard technical team is comprised of João Carabetta, Mattia Chiapello, Maria Paula Gerardino, Daniel Martinez, Edgar Salgado, Luciano Sanguino, and Beatrice Zimmerman.

  • Cristina Nolasco

    Cristina Nolasco, speaker, entrepreneur, and recognized for her work as a connector of the innovation ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her career began running digital native businesses, from technology products to sales and communications. From IDB’s Innovation team (KIC), she managed initiatives to mainstream innovation within the institution and ran yearly calls for startups and social businesses improving lives in the region. During her time at IDB Lab, she led the Connections strategy with key audiences, such as startups, venture capital funds, governments and private sector partners to promote the use of cutting-edge technologies and new business models for development. She launched the first edition of IDB Lab Forum, the main event on innovation for inclusion in the region, and co-founded Moonshots for Development, a network of innovation labs of multilateral and development finance institutions to scale their collective global impact. Most recently, she was Head of Partnerships at Platzi, one the largest professional education platforms in Latin America. Mentor to dozens of startups and advocate for biodiversity and conservation in her hometown of Cancun, Mexico.

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