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2008 Latin America Forum: “Going through a fundamental change"
Latin America Business Forum 2008
Saturday 31 May 2008
‘Latin America: Going through a fundamental change’
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In 2008, over 200 people attended the 3rd Latin America Business Forum. The theme, ‘Latin America: Going through a fundamental change’, examined the region’s rapid growth and the essential changes necessary to sustain its competitive edge and strengthen its position in the international business community.
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PROGRAMME | SPEAKERS
09:15 Registration and Coffee
10:00 Introduction
10:15 Keynote Speaker: Driving Change in Latin America
José Carlos Grubisich Filho, Chief Executive Officer, Braskem
11:05 Coffee Break
11:30 Interactive Discussion: Economic Challenges for Sustainable Growth
•Piero Ghezzi, Head of Emerging Markets Research, Barclays Capital
•José Juan Ruiz Gómez, Senior Vice President and Director of Strategy and Analysis,
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Latin American Division, Grupo Santander
Interviewer: Professor Winston Fritsch, Head of Lehman Brothers Investment Banking, Brazil
12:30 Lunch
13:45 Interactive Discussion: Natural resources: The Path to Development?
•Alberto Calderón, Group Executive and Chief Commercial Officer, BHP Billiton
•Paulo Ludmer, General-Secretary - Interamerican Association of Major Power Consumers
Interviewer: Professor Helene Rey, Professor of Economics, London Business School
14:55 Keynote Speaker: Innovation in Latin America: A Success Story
Blanca Treviño, President and Chief Executive Officer, Softtek
Nearshore Innovation London.pdf
15:15 Coffee Break
15:40 Interactive Discussion: Entrepreneurship in Latin America: An Insiders’ View
•Blanca Treviño, President and Chief Executive Officer, Softtek
•Danilo Meth, CEO, DBA Enghenaria de Sistemas
•Walter de Mattos, (LEP40), Founder, CEO and Editor, LANCE!
Interviewer: John Mullins, Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and
Entrepreneurship, London Business School
16:30 Keynote Speaker: The Business of Inclusion: Investment Opportunities in Latin America
Dr Alejandro Toledo, President of Peru, 2001 - 2006
17:30 Cocktail Reception
BHP Billiton
Group Executive and Chief Commercial Officer
Alberto was born in Colombia. He obtained a PhD and M Phil in Economics from Yale University, a JD in Law and a BA in Economics both from Andes University.
Alberto joined BHP Billiton as President Diamonds and Specialty Products in February 2006 and was appointed Group Executive and Chief Commercial Officer in July 2007. His early career was spent in various roles in investment banking, the power sector and in the Colombian Government. In 1999, he was appointed President of Ecopetrol where he spent three years. From July 2002 until joining BHP Billiton, he was President of Cerrejon Coal Company (33 per cent owned by BHP Billiton).
Alberto is married to Marta. They currently live in London with their two children, Emilia and Antonio
Dr Alejandro Toledo
President of Peru, 2001 – 2006
Dr Alejandro Toledo was democratically elected President of Peru, serving from July 2001-July 2006. The fight against poverty through health and educational investment was the central aim of Toledo's presidency. As a result of sustained economic growth and deliberate social policies directed to the most poor, extreme poverty was reduced by 25 percent in five years. Employment grew at an average rate of 6 percent from 2004-2006. During the five years of Toledo’s presidency, the Peruvian economy grew at an average rate of 6 percent, registering as one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America.
Before becoming President, Toledo worked for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. and the United Nations in New York. He first appeared on the international political scene in 1996 when he formed and led a broad democratic coalition to bring down the autocratic regime of Alberto Fujimori.
Toledo was born in a small and remote village in the Peruvian Andes, 12,000 feet above sea level. He is one of sixteen brothers and sisters from a family of extreme poverty. At the age of six, he worked as a street shoe shiner and simultaneously sold newspapers and lotteries to supplement the family income. Thanks to an accidental access to education, Toledo was able to go from extreme poverty to the most prestigious academic centers of the world, later becoming one of the most prominent democratic leaders of Latin America. He is the first Peruvian president of indigenous descent to be democratically elected in five hundred years.
Toledo received a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the University of San Francisco. He has a MA in Economics, a MA in Economics of Human Resources, and a PhD in Economics of Human Resources, all from Stanford University. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and a Research Associate at Waseda University in Tokyo.
Last year, Toledo was the Distinguished Visitor in Residence at Stanford University’s Center for advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is currently the 2007-2008 Payne Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at FSI, a CDDRL Visiting Scholar, is President of the Global Center for Development and Democracy (GCDD) based in Latin America, the U.S.A. and the European Union. Toledo has lectured in more than forty countries on issues of poverty, economic growth, and democracy as well as on the benefits of human capital investment. He has received forty six honorary doctoral degrees from prestigious universities around the world.
President & CEO, Softtek
Featured as a Rising Star in 2007 by Fortune Magazine’s “50 most powerful women in global business” issue, Blanca Treviño has been Chairperson and CEO of Softtek since August 2000. Under her leadership the company has become the largest private IT service provider in Latin America and has been recognized by analysts as the only non-Indian offshore service provider to pose serious competition for the US market.
Blanca has spent 20 of her 25 year career with Softtek, and has held different positions. During her term as CEO, the company has grown over 300% in headcount and 400% in revenue. Blanca Treviño sits at the board of different organisations and universities, including WalMart Mexico, The United States – Mexico Foundation for Science, University of Monterrey and Universidad Tec Milenio. She also serves as an advisor for the government of Nuevo Leon, her home state in Mexico. In October 2007 Blanca was selected as the third most influential business woman in Mexico by CNN / Expansion, and in 2004 she was selected as Technology Leader of the year by Latin Trade Magazine. Mrs. Treviño holds a BS degree in Computer Sciences from the Monterrey Tec.
Danilo Meth
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, DBA Engenharia de Sistemas
Born on 1 February 1960 in Barra do Pirai, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Danilo Meth is married and has 4 children. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering and has a Post Graduate qualification in Information Technology from PUC-RJ.
Danilo is founder and member of the Board of Brasscom - the Brazilian Association of Software and Services Companies for Exportation, an association that groups together the leading Brazilian companies in the IT sector and member of the Board of Firjan (Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil representing more than 16,000 associate industry and business members) Innovation Council.
Danilo Meth has a reputation of being a strong team player and leader. A results-oriented business leader with a passion for the industry, the customer and execution excellence. He created DBA in 1988 after a short period working as a programmer in a large Brazilian corporation.
Danilo has positioned DBA as a leading supplier of IT solutions for major corporations and Government which was recognized as one of 50 best managed outsourcers in 2007 (Black Book of Outsourcing) and one of The 2008 Global Services 100, a compilation of the world’s most innovative service providers.
Professor of Economics at London Business School
Hélène Rey is Professor of Economics at London Business School. She received her undergraduate degree from ENSAE, a Master in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University and her PhDs from the London School of Economics and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Until 2007, she was at Princeton University, as Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Economics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School. In 2005 she was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. She received the 2006 Bernácer Prize (best European economist working in macroeconomics and finance under the age of 40) for “her important research on the determinants and consequences of external trade and financial imbalances, the theory of financial crisis and the internationalization of currencies. Her contributions help to improve our understanding of the connections among globalization, exchange rates and external markets”. She has published widely in top journals (Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of International Economics, Review of Financial Studies). She is associate editor of the International Journal of Central Banking, Journal of the European Economic Association and of the Economic Journal. She is on the board of the Review of Economics Studies and a member of the Council of the European Economic Association. She is a CEPR Research Fellow and an NBER Research Associate. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the Fondation Banque de France and a member of the Bellagio Group on the international economy. She writes a regular column for the French newspaper Les Echos.
London Business School
John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice in the Entrepreneurship and Marketing groups at London Business School. He earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. An award-winning teacher, John brings to his teaching and research 20 years of executive experience in high-growth retailing firms including two ventures he founded and one he took public.
Since becoming a business school professor in 1992, John has published three books, numerous cases and more than 40 articles in a variety of outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. His research has won national and international awards from the Marketing Science Institute, the American Marketing Association, and the Richard D. Irwin Foundation. He is a frequent speaker to audiences in entrepreneurship and venture capital.
John’s best-selling trade book, The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan (2e, London: Prentice-Hall/FT 2006), is the definitive work on the assessment and shaping of entrepreneurial opportunities. John is also co-author of Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision Making Approach, 7th edition and Marketing Strategy: A Decision Focused Approach, 6th edition.
John has consulted with and done executive education on four continents for a variety of organizations both large and small, including the African and European Venture Capital Associations, Eastman Kodak Company, the International Finance Corporation of The World Bank, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Kenya Airways, Phoenix Equity Partners, Pumpkin Ltd., Roche Diagnostics, Time Warner Communications, the Young Presidents’ Organization, and numerous others.
José Carlos Grubisich Filho
President and Chief Executive Officer, Braskem
Born on the 19th of January, 1957 in Itatinga, State of São Paulo, Brazil, José Carlos Grubisich is married and has two children. He graduated in Chemical Engineering, with MBA from Insead, France.
José Carlos Grubisich developed his career at the Rhône Poulenc Group having occupied various positions, including: Chairman and CEO of Rhodia S.A. for Brazil and Latin America, Vice-President of Rhodia Fine Organics worldwide and member of the Executive Board of the Group. Since 2002 he has led the integration of the companies which created Braskem. As President and CEO of the company, he has been managing the consolidation process of Braskem as a World Class Petroquemical Company. For the 5th consecutive year he has been awarded with the “Prêmio Executivo de Valor”, by the newspaper Valor Econômico.
José Juan Ruiz Gómez
Director, Strategy and Analysis, Latin America Division, Grupo Santander
José Juan Ruiz Gómez was born in Tarancón (Cuenca, Spain). July 30, 1957. Married, three children. Graduate in Economics at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (1980). Civil Servant from 1982 to 1987 as Tecnico Comercial y Economista del Estado. In 1998 was appointed Chief of Staff of the Vice- Minister of Economy and in 1990 Undersecretary for International Economy and Competition. Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee of the European Union from 1991 to 1993. In 1993 joined Argentaria – then, the largest Spanish bank - as Chief Economist, in 1996 Analistas Financieros Internacionales and at the end of the year, Banco Santander as Director of Strategy, Communication and Investor Relations. Following the merger of Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano was appointed Director of Strategy and Analysis in the Latin American Division. Visiting professor at several Spanish MBAs and a regular contributor to El País, Expansión, Actualidad Económica and other publications.
Managing Director, Head of Emerging Market Research
Piero Ghezzi is a Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Research at Barclays Capital, based in London.
Prior to joining Barclays Capital in July 2007, Mr. Ghezzi was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Emerging Markets Strategy and Head of Latin America Research at Deutsche Bank. Previously, Mr. Ghezzi taught at Johns Hopkins University in the Economics Department and consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank. Previously, he was an adviser to the Peruvian Ministry of Finance.
Mr. Ghezzi received a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an Advanced Studies Certificate (ASC) in International Economics Policy from the Kiel Institute of World Economics in Germany and a BA in Economics from Peru’s Universidad del Pacifico.
Chief Executive Officer, Lance!
Walter de Mattos Junior holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from the Rio de Janeiro State University; UERJ and has also studied an Extension at London Business School (LEP 40) at Insead, France (SEP 93), at IMD Switzerland and a Finance Executive MBA at IBMEC. For nine years he worked for a diversified shipping, financial and industrial group, Frota Oceanica from where he left as Finance and Planning director in 1989. Then he moved on to take office as CEO for O Dia media Group where he led a new management team that implemented a turnover and a repositioning of the O Dia brand that took the company to a highly profitable level and enabled it to move from just a newspaper company to being a multimedia regional cluster, with another newspaper, two radios and a TV station. In 1997, together with major Brazilian investors, Walter created from scratch the LANCE! brand, of which group he has been the CEO and editor. LANCE!
publishes the leading sports daily paper and sports only internet portal in Brazil, apart from other smaller businesses being leveraged on the same brand such as web TV, a 24h web radio, a monthly magazine and a mobile subscription service on sports. Lance! is the first national media group specialized only in sports in Brazil. Walter is also a founder and board member of the Viva Rio one of the maini NGO`s in Rio de Janeiro, and sits on the board of the Lorentzen Group (Aracruz Celulose, Norsul Navegação and Ideiasnet). Walter is also Vice-President for ANJ, the Brazilian Association of Newspapers.
Director Council Member, ABRACE
Mr Paulo Ludmer is a member of the Director Council at the Brazilian Association of Major Power Consumers and Free Consumers ABRACE. He was an Executive Director at this associatrion from 1996 to 2006, where he held key responsibilities in a number of working groups related to The Kyoto Protocol, the environment and climate changes and legal and taxation policies. He has acted as spokesman and liaison in the International Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (Geneva), at the European Parliament and the UN. He was also in charge of representing the entity before all spheres of the Brazilian Government, business leadership organizations, regulatory agencies, and diplomatic corps.
Mr Ludmer founded The Interamerican Association of Major Power Consumers, having been its General Secretary in 2006. He has also been a representative at the World Energy Council, and currently is a member in the Council for Alternative Energy for The Sao Paulo Commodities and Futures Exchange (BOVESPA/BM&F). Mr Ludmer has worked at CESP - Sao Paulo Energy Company as an Advisory Engineer and was designated spokesman of the Department of Land Affairs of the Secretariat of Agriculture of the State of Sao Paulo.
Mr Ludmer is Professor in Energy Policy, Economic Journalism and Study of Brazilian Problems at The Polytechnic Institute of the Sao Paulo State University. He has held speeches at the United States Department of State in Washington, at the London School of Economics, at NAESCO (Energy Services Companies, Washington). He has authored a number of books and reports on the subject and regularly writes for major newspapers and the specialized media. He is also a consultant and a fiction and chronicles writer.
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Ludmer holds a BSc. in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute at the University of Sao Paulo and is a Licensed Journalist.
Head of Investment Banking, Lehman Brothers Brazil and member, Latin America Regional Advisory Board, London Business School
Winston Fritsch has been Head of Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking in Brazil since August 2007. Previously, he was a senior partner at Rio Bravo Investimentos, a merchant bank and investment management firm in Brazil. Before joining Rio Bravo, Winston was Managing Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, London, and head of Dresdner Bank’s operations in Brazil where he set up and developed the group’s Investment Banking activities. He has also been the Chairman of the Board of the Brazilian Association of Foreign Banks (ABBI) and a member of the Advisory Board of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN).
Winston is a member of the Board of the Brazilian Centre for International Relations (CEBRI), of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art and member of the Councils of Fellows of the National Library and the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden.
Winston acted as Secretary of Economic Policy of the Ministry of Finance, under ministers Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Rubens Ricupero and Ciro Gomes, during the design and implementation of the Real Plan (May 1993 to December 1994) and, in this capacity, also played a central role in the consolidation of the Mercosul, the free trade zone between Brazil and its Southern Cone neighbours.
Winston holds a BA and a MSc in Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and former Director of the School of Economics and Administration of UFRJ, where he still teaches at the MBA Programme at COPPEAD/UFRJ. Winston is a member of the Latin America Regional Advisory Board of the London Business School.
