Pablo Garcia, is a Lead Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He is in charge of the IDB Regional hub for trade and investment activities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, where he leads the design and implementation of projects related to export promotion, investment attraction and trade in services. He is also in charge of the IDB cluster for trade and investment promotion. Previously at IDB he held positions as country economist and coordinator.

Before joining the Bank, he was Chief Economist at the Center of Production Studies of the Argentine Ministry of Economy. In the private sector, he worked as an external consultant to several national and international organizations (IADB, World Bank, USAID). He has authored several works and studies on international economy, trade in services, and intra-industry trade. He has also been a professor at Georgetown University and at the University of Buenos Aires. Mr. Garcia holds a Master’s degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University, a Master’s degree in Economics from Di Tella University and a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires.

In January 2012, Miro was appointed as President of EGS for the Latin American Region. Expert Global Solutions (EGS) is a world-class, comprehensive Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) entity in global management and outsourcing services.

In his role as President of LATAM, he is responsible for the operations in the different countries of this region: Guatemala, Panama, Uruguay and the Caribbean. Reporting to the COO, Miro is one of the 12 members of the Global EGS Executive Leadership Team. In last two years, he has attained 30% growth in Revenues and doubled Ebitda results YOY. He has also attained the expansion of the company’s footprint in the region and the Regional Sales Efforts across:

• 10 Call center Operations, over 6000 employees
• 24 BPO Clients of multiple industries
• Shared Services : Recruiting and Human Resources
• Finances, Training and Development
• Strategy and Planning
• Business Development, Growth

Prior to his leadership role in EGS, Miro has over 17 years in the call center, BPO and telecommunications business.

Talent Acquisition Manager
UNISYS

Since November 2013, Ximena Cardenas is the Talent Acquisition Manager at Unisys. She leads the recruitment process to deliver appropriate talent to all of the company’s business units in Mexico and the LACSA countries, which include Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

As a Systems Engineer and Business Administrator from San Buenaventura University in Cali, Ximena has worked for large companies in the technology industry, and has also served as an expert for Information Technologies’ talent acquisitions at Unisys.

Ximena is capable of preventing crises and controlling risks. She oversees both the whole system and the way its components come together and interact. Her working style involves focus and planning, as well as optimization.

Prior to joining Unisys she served at ManpowerGroup and Microsoft, and worked in some technology ventures in Cali and Bogota.

Marco Baars is a Commodity Manager for Product Engineering Services, part of the Corporate Strategic Procurement group at Intel Corporation. Based in Costa Rica, Marco covers all Latin America countries where Intel has presence.

He is an industrial engineer with advanced studies in Operations Management and Industrial Engineering. He has over 10 years of experience in Information Technology and Supply Chain Operations.

President & Co-founder
Cloudsourcing.us

Silvina Moschini is an international entrepreneur, an expert in digital innovation, and a frequent collaborator on CNN en Español (in Spanish), where she co-hosts “Opinion2.0”, the weekly segment broadcast during the program “Encuentro,” which is dedicated to discussing the latest Internet trends. Her columns have been published in more than 150 media channels throughout the world.

Silvina is a co-founder of Yandiki, a cutting-edge company that aims to revolutionize cloud-based work by facilitating the exporting of talent and creative services from Latin America to the rest of the world.

In addition, she is the CEO of Intuic, a social media agency, and the president of Transparent Business, a web-based application that is revamping the virtual workplace. Transparent Business was the 2012 winner of the PC World award for “Best Cloud Computing Solution for Enterprise”.

Previously, Silvina has served as the vice-president of companies including Visa, Patagon.com, and Compaq Computer Corporation.

Elliott Torres is a lead practitioner for the Cognitive Analytics team at Deloitte Consulting. His areas of expertise include: Integrating cognitive techniques for customer solutions using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Handwriting Recognition (HWR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Elliott has a proven track record in software development and technology management. Prior to joining Deloitte Consulting, Elliott researched and developed strategies, standards and best practices for the largest U.S. healthcare payer system. His previous work has focused on disruptive technology for Fortune 100 companies and start-ups across a variety of industries including telecommunications, finance, and travel.

Elliott’s publications include an essay on the application of Neural Networks in predicative traffic models for Urban and Regional Transportation Modeling. Elliott chaired the Industrial Affiliate Board of the Security and Software Research Center, a National Science Foundation program.

Elliott, a native of Cali, Colombia, S.A., currently resides with his family in Wilmette, IL. He received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of Illinois at Chicago.

Principal
Tholons, India

With close to 10 years of multi-geography experience in globalization Vikrant has advised organizations and governments alike on services globalization and allied initiatives.

He has been part of various globalization initiatives with organizations that have spanned activities like sourcing strategy, cost & location optimization and performance benchmarking. With an experience spanning geographies like Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Jordan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uruguay he has developed deep insights into location selection, operations setup and scale-up of global operations.

He has been part of several government led initiative on building & executing IT/BPO competitiveness plans that have covered areas like articulating location value propositions, targeting potential customer geographies, and execution of skills development strategies that lay emphasis the creating the right-skilled, industry-ready talent that supports sustainable growth of a location.

Prior to joining Tholons, Vikrant was a Sr. Consultant at Aon Hewitt’s Transaction & Transformation Practice, and worked on assignments spanning HR Transformation, Shared Services Design and Leadership Development.

His past experience spans business development & partner management roles with organizations like QAI Global, HCL Technologies and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)

Software Factory Vice President
Infocorp

Juan Pablo is a computer Engineer by the University of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay. In 2005, he started serving as Development Manager at Infocorp, leading the Project Managers’ team in applying methodologies, defining new processes and productive models, as well as in promoting different internal initiatives. Since 2011, Juan Pablo is the Software Factory Vice President, where he is in charge of managing the different units of production. Prior to that, he worked for several years in developing and implementing systems for industrial processes’ planning and as a consultant. He also specialized in java platforms to develop products oriented to Business Intelligence issues, and focused on managing different projects for financial technological innovations. He has a wide teaching experience, and currently is Associate Professor in Software Engineering at the University of Montevideo.

Head of Special Channels Sales
Google

For three years now, Rogelio Montekio has been Google’s Head of Channel Sales for the SMEs segment in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean.

Through the Channel Sales program, Rogelio leads the team that creates strategic alliances with other leading corporations, in order to make it easier for the SMEs to access and obtain the Google’s online advertising products, such as Google Adwords, the Display Network of Google and YouTube. The Channel Sales program (Google) already includes thousands of SMEs in Mexico, which benefit from Google’s digital advertising and its strategic allies’ products.

Prior to joining Google, Rogelio worked at different leading companies in the Information Technologies (IT) industry, including Salesforce.com and Computer Associates, as well as in start-ups like AdvanceWork International. He was also employed at UPS, Berlitz and Procter&Gamble.

Rogelio is an Industrial and Systems Engineer from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey), and holds an MBA from the same institution.

Besides that, Rogelio Montekio is the President of the SMEs Committee at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and was part of the jury of the 2014 Entrepreneur’s National Award (Premio Nacional del Emprendedor 2014).

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP)

Debi Hamill is the CEO of IAOP, the global, standard-setting association and advocate for outsourcing professionals and the organizations they support, with approximately 120,000 members and affiliates from more than 60 countries.

As a skilled professional known for relationship development acumen and leadership of executive-level conferences and events, Debi’s work has been instrumental in positioning IAOP as the leading professional association for organizations and individuals involved in transforming the world of business through sourcing.

Under her stewardship, IAOP has expanded to more than 50 chapters around the globe; successfully presented The Outsourcing World Summit® Conference Series 31 times on five continents; annually issued the Global Outsourcing 100 - the definitive guide of the world’s best providers and advisors; trained and certified thousands of executives through its Certified Outsourcing Professional® program; published the de facto reference tool, the Outsourcing Professional Body of Knowledge™ (OPBOK)); and recognized outsourcing visionaries through its highly-regarded recognition programs including The Outsourcing Hall of Fame and Global Excellence in Outsourcing (GEO) awards.

She is a participating member of ASAE, the Center for Association Leadership as well as Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA).

Executive Director
International Digital Media & Arts Association (iDMAa)

Joseph programmed his first game after teaching himself BASIC while working as a copywriter on the Coca-Cola account. Since then, Olin has been involved with more than one hundred titles and interactive products on nearly every consumer game platform launched.

Joseph has an active game business consulting practice – It’s A Secret – and is finishing his tenure as Executive Director for the International Digital Media & Arts Association (iDMAa) – a professional educational association to foster interaction between the commercial and academic worlds and is Adjunct Faculty at the University of Southern California videogame program. Most recently, Joseph created and ran a series of Diplomados (3-month 130 hour series of classes) in Videogames and Animation for the Colombian Ministry of Information & Technology (MinTIC) in Medellin. This program led to the creation of 20 new studios and 30 game projects in the city.

Olin is known for his long tenure as President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences – the games industry’s largest association of accredited professionals - where he championed the role of talented creators within the $50 billion video game industry. Olin grew Academy membership more than six-fold from 3,000 to 20,000 and directed the annual D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, the Interactive Achievements Awards® and the Into the Pixel™ video game art exhibit.

As a precursor to the Academy, Olin spearheaded the introduction of gaming’s most famous heroine, Lara Croft, with the launch of the blockbuster Tomb Raider franchise as vice president of sales, marketing and business development for EIDOS Interactive. Olin also served as senior partner and group account director at Ogilvy & Mather directing Mattel’s Barbie and licensed toys campaigns. Earlier in his career, Olin held senior level positions in game publishing, advertising, sales, and marketing. At Elliot Portwood Studios, Olin co-created Leonardo’s Multimedia Toolbox, an educational software platform, developed with Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott (creators of Carmen Sandiego). His background also includes tenure at Philips Media, Della Femina McNamee, and Microprose/Hasbro Interactive. Olin sits on advisory boards for: Film-Akademie of Baden-Wurttemberg, the International Federation of Multimedia Associations (FIAM), Games/Business/Law Summit at SMU, ANIM/FX New Zealand, SIGGRAPH, Videogames Economic Forum in Angouleme, France, ACI Games in Brazil, and the UCLA/CRESST Games Research Center and speaks at a number of digital conferences annually.

Olin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and has been adjunct faculty at Interactive Media Division with the School of Cinematic Arts since 2010.

Mr. Sinclair currently serves as the Executive Director of Reel Rock GSW Animation; one of Jamaica’s leading animation production companies and has had extensive experience working both locally and internationally in the areas of media, entertainment, and sports. He has worked in various capacities in film and live-music productions as well as in creative industries policy development with such companies as ABC Television, Warner Brothers, The William Morris Agency and the Reggae Sunsplash Tours of the USA and Japan. Additionally, Mr. Sinclair has worked with the Organization and African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP) and the European Union on several programs including the co-authoring of the Brussels Declaration in 2009, which now serves as a blueprint for creative industries policy development throughout the ACP. He also co-authored the Major Events Attraction Program (MEAP) as a consultant for JAMPRO. Describing himself as a “serial entrepreneur”, Mr. Sinclair got his start as a securities analyst before earning a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA).

Practice Manager
Technology Business Research

Patrick Heffernan is the practice manager and a principal analyst in TBR’s Professional Services Practice, where he directs the practice’s syndicated portfolio, cultivates and manages projects covering topics ranging from management consulting to firms’ financial advisory services, as well as emerging technologies and consulting issues. Patrick’s responsibilities tap his expertise in competitive intelligence, strategy, and global political-economic impacts on business cycles and consulting vendors.

Prior to joining TBR, Patrick was part of a Big Four firm’s competitive intelligence team, conducting fieldwork and analysis. His professional career started in diplomacy, with Middle East postings as a Foreign Service officer with the State Department and counterterrorism assignments with the National Security Council and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Patrick received a B.A. from Washington and Lee University and an M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Santiago Pinzón is currently the Executive Director of the Chamber of BPO/ITO/KPO at the National Entrepreneurs Association of Colombia – ANDI. He leads and organizes ANDI’s activities and projects to strengthen the BPO, ITO & KPO sector and the country as a global sourcing destination, especially to pursue sustainable economic growth. Mr. Pinzón collaborates with the government, academia, and international associations to develop a more business friendly environment, promote best practices, and to stimulate improvements in productivity and efficiency. He frequently participates as a panelist in international and regional events, and his opinions are valued by different sectors.

Mr. Pinzon is a lawyer with a Master in Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in International Development from the American University School of Public Affairs in Washington D.C.

From 2010 to 2011, he was a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the International Professional Outsourcing Organization (IAOP) and the first president of the Regional Council for Latin America of IAOP, which he continues to be an active member. He is also a member of the Chapter Transboundary Sourcing and the Academic Assessment Committee to carry out the 2012 Outsourcing World Summit. He served as the IAOP Ambassador for the region from 2012 to 2013. In 2012 and 2014, Mr. Pinzón was chosen as one of the Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Outsourcing Executives.

Interactive Communication and Social Media Strategist

As an expert in Interactive Communication & Social Media, Karla has focused on developing businesses in the digital industry for more than 10 years, specializing in integrated interactive marketing solutions. During that time, she has analyzed the impact of technology in human being’s development, the way it has changed the way we relate and behave as a society and, therefore, as consumers.

MILKnCOOKIES, an internationally awarded digital agency, is Karla’s greatest achievement as an entrepreneur. Its awards include: World Summit Award, by the United Nations, as one of the five world best E-Entertainment developers, and one of the eight best developers from the 2003-2013 decade, by UNESCO. Both were granted for building knowledge societies towards peace and sustainable development (Construir Sociedades de Conocimiento en pos de la paz y el desarrollo sostenible).

Her most recent challenge was the creation of the Digital Awareness Program, which is focused on empowering women through technology. The program creates new job opportunities for exporting Social Networks Management services, designed for certain niches.

As a speaker, Karla is engaged with the knowledge-sharing concept, in order to promote a better world. She has performed with courses, talks and conferences in events related to technology, entrepreneurship, and self-improvement; themes that she has also addressed in almost all of the country’s universities. “When we share our knowledge, others can take that information as a seed and grow wonderful things out of it. Offer relevant information, make it viral, connect the dots and be amazed by the results”. That’s the idea that gave birth to the digital consulting program MnC RECIPES: “I want to share what I’ve learned during the past ten years, create shared value and change the world together!”

Karla has received local and international recognition in a wide range of issues. In 2014, she was awarded as an Outstanding Professor by Universidad del Istmo. She was also chosen by the IDB as one of the ten Innovators in Latin America, and was included as one of the 22 women around the world to participate in the Global Women’s Mentoring Program, organized by the Fortune Most Powerful Women, the US State Department and Vital Voices.

During the summer, Karla was invited to participate in the International Jury for the World Summit Award 2014. She was also invited to represent Latin America at the Internet Governance Forum, which was held in Istanbul and organized by the United Nations. In Poland, she served as a Social Media Consultant for the Global Ambassadors program (Vital Voices & Bank of America) and in Guatemala she was chosen as an official ambassador of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED). Her artwork is based on the idea of communicating positive messages through her pieces, which are large and colorful with modern and contemporary aesthetics. Her most recent collection is titled “Something to Share” and comprises 15 pieces that capture her philosophy of life. Its central piece is called “Happiness is a Choice!”

Head of Informatics
Institut Pasteur Montevideo, Uruguay

Hugo Naya is Head of Bioinformatics at the Institut Pasteur Montevideo, Associate Professor of Quantitative Genetics (Universidad de la República) and Professor of Bioinformatics (Universidad ORT) in Uruguay. He was also recently named the Special Visiting Professor at the Federal Bay University (UFBA), Brazil. His research focus involves functional and evolutionary genomics. In particular, he is interested in the application of quantitative methods derived from statistical genetics in the bioinformatics field. In addition, he has some ongoing research in the field of quantitative genetics. Part of his key work involves pathogenicity from the genomics point of view, developing methods to search for changes in proteins associated with pathogenicity and applying machine-learning methods to predict pathogenicity.

Most recently, he was appointed leader of the Uruguayan Human Genome Project (URUGENOMES), where he has ventured into the analysis of Latin-American human genome variability and its consequences for anthropology and genomic medicine.

Finally, he is also interested in the field of biological-medical ontologies, where he has developed a microRNA ontology and has provided consultancy services in software development using HL7/SNOMED.

Assistant Vice President – Corporate Services
Cognizant, Philippines

Jeff Williams heads the Corporate Services at Cognizant – managing Infrastructure, Administration, Business Continuity Planning, Government and Industry liaison, Network and Systems Services, Global Security, and Academe relationships for all Philippine sites.

Prior to his assignment, Jeff led the Global Clinical Services (GCS) operations of Cognizant. Under his leadership, GCS expanded its operations, employing over 800 licensed Nurses, Doctors and other clinically trained personnel. His efforts have pioneered the way with Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) Core, Workers’ Compensation Utilization Management, and Health Utilization Management Accreditation outside of U.S. shores, creating an international classification for URAC accreditation. Jeff joined Cognizant through the acquisition of MediCall Philippines in 2012.

Jeff established the first clinically oriented healthcare service center in Metro Manila, MediCall – a specialized clinical services provider, supporting medical management, workers compensation, and specialty services segments of the U.S. healthcare market. Jeff has over 20 years of professional experience in Healthcare, BPO, IT Operations, Project Management, Operations Management, Process Improvement, Business Strategy, and Consulting.

Currently, Jeff also serves as Chairman, Board of Trustees for the Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (HIMOAP).

Head of Commerical
Exigent Group Limited, South Africa

Nadia is an admitted attorney from Uruguay with 5 years' experience, working on briefs for Latin American, European, and U.S. multinational corporate and government clients. She is experienced in a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including drafting, reviewing and negotiating various commercial agreements, conducting audits, and providing assessment on infrastructure tenders and other projects. Nadia is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has worked as Head of Commercial for almost two years at Exigent, a leading LPO provider. She is now working as a Consultant focusing on alternative legal services and high quality legal process outsourcing.

Vice President
Mass Ventures

Jennifer is a venture capitalist focused on early-stage and seed investment in Massachusetts’ high technology companies for MassVentures. Her most recent investments are focused on enterprise, big data, and the intersection of biology and IT. Previously, she was a member of the Golden Seeds angel investor network, where she analyzed early stage investment opportunities, and worked with entrepreneurs in designing more effective business strategies.

She has also provided start-up mentoring for entrepreneurs through Springboard and the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. She is the founder of the Reed College Start-Up Lab and has served as a first round judge for the MIT $100K and Mass Challenge business plan competitions. She recently served as Entrepreneurship Lead for the MIT Accelerating Information Technology Innovation program sponsored by Google in Cali, Colombia, where she lead 30 young entrepreneurs in a six week lean start-up program to form ten new mobile technology companies, and connect them to mentors and angel and venture investors in the region.

Previously, Jennifer served as Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations at Cadence Design Systems and spent 10 years building an investment research practice in early search, e-commerce, mobile, Internet software applications, video game and technical software as a Senior Vice President and Senior Equity Research analyst with Black & Company through its acquisition by Wells Fargo Securities.

She is a black belt in the Indonesian Martial Art of Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen and holds the title Mas Goeroe. Jennifer earned an MBA from MIT Sloan and a Bachelor of Arts from Reed College.

Alejandro Burato has an Engineering degree in Computer Science from the University of Belgrano in Argentina. In 2005, he earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, CA.

Since 2011, Mr. Burato has been an active advisor in finance and strategic planning for companies in the technology, internet, asset management, and media & entertainment sectors. His responsibilities have ranged from business strategy definition and financial planning and modeling to fundraising, due diligence assessment, and acquisitions (Mergers and Acquisitions).

In 2014, Mr. Burato co-founded FAV Network, a multi-channel network focused on the production and affiliation of virtual, audiovisual content throughout Latin America and the United States with a focus on native Spanish and Portuguese-speaking creators.

In 2010, Mr. Burato co-founded Enzyme Venture Capital with Daniel Nofal, an investment firm focused on early-stage opportunities in the technology, Internet, and entertainment sectors. Between 2010 and 2013, from Buenos Aires, the firm invested in 14 Latin American opportunities on a regional and global scale. The company has already two exit portfolios and continues to manage the remaining investments.

Following business school, Mr. Burato joined Copernico Capital Partners, where he managed all quantitative analysis and risk management of investment portfolios. Additionally, he led an effort to invest in the entertainment industry within the company.

While at business school, Mr. Burato worked at Outlaw Productions, a Hollywood-based production company, where he raised $240 million in capital and equity for a motion picture production. He also worked for Empyrean Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based hedge fund, implementing capital structure arbitrage models. From early 2000 to late 2002, Mr. Burato worked in several management consulting engagements in Latin America (Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Santiago de Chile) for McKinsey & Company and also in Los Angeles, CA in the entertainment, telecommunications and technology industries. Prior, he worked in software analysis, development, and design for Accenture.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Tokai Ventures/Tokai Consulting

In 2014, Gabriel Rozman founded Tokai Ventures and Tokai Consulting, an investment fund and consulting firm in areas related to technology, outsourcing, and BPS. He is currently the CEO of both companies.

Until June 2014, Rozman was the Executive Vice-President of the Global Delivery Network for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a company that he had been a part of since 2001. Since January 2008 and prior to this role, Gabriel served as Executive Vice-President of Emerging Markets, where he was in charge of the company’s operations in Latin America, the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Eastern Europe. As part of TCS’ Executive Leadership team, he was responsible for leading the company’s operations in these areas and now leads over 20 Centers outside of India.

Before joining TCS, he served as the International Consulting Director and as a regional partner at Ernst & Young. He also served as the Executive Director of a leading software company in Mexico.

Gabriel has many years of experience in the consulting and information technology industry, with a distinguished career spread across multiple continents. He is a member of the Americas Council and serves on several boards including Uruguayan American Chamber of Commerce; Advisory Board of D. Rockefeller Foundation for Latin America; Latin American Advisory Board for Harvard Business School; Advisory Board for IAE Business School in Argentina. Gabriel is also on the Global Advisory Board of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship in developing countries, and he serves as the President of Endeavor Uruguay. He also serves on the Global board of ACCION, a leading microfinance non-government organization. Additionally, he is an investor in several entrepreneurial projects.

Gabriel has a Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics from California State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles.

President and Founder
HartsGroup, Inc.

Nearshore America’s “Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Executives” describes Ann Harts as “a thorough and reliable advisor whose site selection and negotiating expertise make her one of the region’s most knowledgeable partners. Ann is savvy, aggressive, gets things done and gets answers for her clients”. As President/Founder of HartsGroup, Ann blends experience in real estate, finance and community economic development and is fluent in domestic and international site selection, public incentive advisory and real estate transaction management. She has spearheaded the corporate real estate activities for a $2billion annual revenue contact center company with a global portfolio of 150+ locations in 30+ countries.

Ann provides strategy and services on corporate site selection, public incentive advisory to global companies, as well as Community Screening Studies for M&A transactions. She has recently completed projects in Brazil, Honduras, United States, and China.

Ann is a contributing writer and expert for several publications to include most recently Nearshore Americas, who named her in the top 20 of the “Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Executives” in 2010, 2011, and 2012. She is an award-winning speaker on site location and economic development, having received CoreNet's Luminary Award and was recently the keynote speaker at Nicaragua and Mauritius’ recent foreign investment conferences. Ann sits on the boards of the Nearshore Executive Alliance as well as Twin Valley Communications and ISG Technologies.

Ann began work in the field of corporate site selection in community and regional economics. During her career in this arena, she led a regional private/public economic development organization, and co-mobilized a community's passing of a one-half cent sales tax, specifically for economic development incentives. These and other achievements caused Ann to be named “Outstanding New Developer of the Year” by her peers by the International Economic Development Council.

General Secretary
Latin American Association of Service Exporters (ALES)

Javier Peña Capobianco has been the mentor and promoter for the creation of the Latin American Association of Service Exporters, an international organization that gathers 31 public and private institutions from 16 countries of the region. Currently, he is the General Secretary of the Association. In addition, he is the Head of International Trade at the National Chamber of Commerce and Services of Uruguay, Professor of International Trade in Services at the Catholic University of Uruguay, and consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank.

He is the co-author of several publications related to globalization of services, including: Uruguay in the Global Trade Market, (IDB 2012), Business Plan: Paraguay’s Service Exports (IDB, 2011), and Best Practices Manual for Service Exports (2010).

He has participated as a speaker in over 20 international conferences in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Switzerland, Turkey, Paraguay, El Salvador and Uruguay.

Finally, Javier has been recognized as one of the most influential executives in the outsourcing sector (The Most Influential Executives in Nearshore Outsourcing 2012). In 2007, he obtained the Best Practice Promotion Services award given by the World Trade Organization and United Nations Trade and Development Conference. (ITC-WTO/UNCTAD)