SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Former President of Chile, 2000-2006
Dr. Ricardo Lagos E. was born on March 2nd, 1938 in Santiago de Chile. In 1960 he graduated as a Lawyer at the Universidad de Chile. Between 1961 and 1963 he studied at Duke University, North Carolina (USA) obtaining, in 1969 a Ph.D. in Economics.
Mr. Lagos was Provost at the Universidad de Chile in the period 1969 – 1971. In 1973, he became General Secretary to the Latin-American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) based in Buenos Aires. In 1974 he moved to the USA to work as Visiting Professor at Chapel Hill University (North Carolina).
He had a number of roles at the United Nations as Ambassador in 1971 and 1972, and as a consultant with UNDP and UN University. From 1978 to 1984, he was the chief economist for the International Labor Organization Regional Employment Program for Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the 1980’s the former President of the Republic had an outstanding participation in the democracy recovery process in Chile, leading the opposition coalition Democratic Alliance (AD) and the Independent Committee for Free Elections (CIEL). Likewise, he stood out as Founder and first President of the social-democratic Party for Democracy (PPD), one of the most important political parties in Chile.
Between 1990 and 1993, Mr. Lagos was appointed Minister of Education under the government of Mr. Patricio Aylwin, and in the period 1994-1998 - under the government of Mr. Eduardo Frei- he was appointed Minister of Public Works.
On 16th January 2000, Ricardo Lagos was elected President of the Republic for a six year term ending on March 11th, 2006.
On March 13th 2006, Mr. Lagos created the Fundacion Democracia y Desarrollo (Foundation for Democracy and Development) of which he is its President.
In April 2006 he formally took up his post as President of the Club de Madrid, an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 66 democratic former heads of state and government.
In April 2006 he was bestowed with the Honorary Doctor Degree at he Universidad de Cordova in Spain, and in September same year, University of California at Berkeley, United States awarded him with the Berkeley Medal.
On May 2007, Brown University announced that Lagos would take a teaching position at the Watson Institute for International Studies for a period of five years, starting on July 1, 2007.
In May 2007 Dr. Lagos was appointed Special Envoy for Climate Change by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will be engaging in consultations with Governments and other organizations in order to assist the Secretary-General to progress the international negotiations towards a post-Kyoto climate change treaty.
Dr. Lagos is married to Luisa Durán and has five children and six grandchildren.
Co-Head of Global Corporate Banking, Citi
Alberto J. Verme is Co-Head of Global Corporate Banking and a member of Citi’s Senior Leadership Committee. He is also a member of the Institutional Clients Group Management Committee and Investment Banking Operating Committee. In 2008, Mr. Verme relocated to Dubai to focus on the Middle East as a strategic imperative for Citi clients around the world.
Citi is a leading global financial services company and has a presence in more than 100 countries. The Citi brand is the most recognized in the financial services industry. Citi is known around the world for market leadership, global product excellence, outstanding talent, strong regional and product franchises, and commitment to providing the highest-quality service to its clients.
Since Mr. Verme’s appointment to his current position in March 2004, Citi has attained investment banking leadership across key regions, products and sectors.
Prior to his appointment to his current position, Mr. Verme was Head of Global Energy, Power and Chemicals Investment Banking from 2001. During his tenure, the franchise achieved world leadership and executed a number of marquee transactions including the Conoco-Phillips merger, the Sibneft-Yukos merger and several key restructurings.
Mr. Verme joined Salomon Brothers in 1994 and worked as Head and later Chairman of Citi’s Latin America Investment Banking Group through May 2001. During that time, he built the leading Latin America banking team, recognized with the IFR 2000 Latin America Bank of the Year award.
Mr. Verme’s experience in Latin America has since been expanded into a truly global expertise, with client and transaction experience spanning every continent.
Prior to 1994, he worked for Metallgesellschaft AG as President of MG Global Capital in London. From 1983 to 1992, he worked for The First Boston Corporation, where he served as Director and Head of Spain (1990-1992) and Co-Head of Emerging Markets (1988-1990).
A Peruvian national, he received a B.A. in Economics from Denison University in 1979 and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 1984. He began his career at The World Bank in 1979.
He is a member of the Columbia Business School London Advisory Board and Columbia Business School Board of Overseers in the United States.
Marcello Hallake is a partner with the law firm of Thompson & Knight LLP in New York. He focuses his practice on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, privatizations, private equity, and other financing transactions in Latin America and around the globe.
Mr. Hallake was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and received his graduate degrees in Law and in Public and International Affairs from Louvain University in Belgium, prior to receiving his masters degree in Law (LL.M.) from Georgetown University. He is the past Chair of the Committee on Inter-American Affairs of the New York City Bar Association, and is a member of the board of directors of various US-based not-for profit organizations involving Brazil and Latin America, including Brazil Foundation, which he co-founded, CDI International (President) and the Inter-American Culture and Development Foundation. Mr. Hallake is a frequent speaker at international law conferences and writes the "Wall Street" column in the Brazilian newspapers Jornal do Brasil and Gazeta Mercantil.
José Juan Ruiz Gómez was born in Tarancón (Cuenca, Spain) on 30 July 1957 and is married with three children. He is a graduate in Economics at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (1980). Mr Ruiz was Civil Servant from 1983 to 1993 at the Ministry of Economy, Treasury and Commerce. He was Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee of the European Union and responsible for the relations between Spain and the OCDE, the IMF and the World Bank between 1991 and 1993.
In 1993 Mr Ruiz Gómez 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 he was appointed Director of Strategy and Analysis in the Latin American Division. For the past 10 years Mr. Ruiz Gómez has been member of the Americas Committee for Banco Santander. He has been on the boards of Banco Santiago (Chile), Banco Santander Colombia, Banco Santander Puerto Rico, Banco Santander Peru and Banco Venezuela.
He is a consultant for the World Bank and a regular contributor to El País, Diario Expansión, Foreign Policy and other publications. In addition he is a visiting professor at several Spanish Universities.
Regional Director Latin America, The Economist Intelligence Unit
Justine Thody is Regional Director of the Latin America team of editors and economists of the Economist Intelligence Unit, the country forecasting and consultancy arm of The Economist Group. The Economist Intelligence Unit is the leading provider of forecasts, reports and articles on economic, political and business developments throughout the world.
Justine has an academic background specialising in the politics, history and economics of Latin America, followed by more than 12 years experience advising senior private sector figures and high-level government officials about the region, through which she has travelled widely over the past 16 years. While having a watching brief for the whole region, in recent years her work has focused mainly on Brazil and Mexico.
Over the years she has been chief analyst for nine of the region's economies (Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador) and has helped oversee the Economist Intelligence Unit's Business Environment Rankings analysis. The latter systematically evaluates competitiveness and other issues affecting the business environment in 82 of the world’s largest economies, including 12 in Latin America.
Before joining the Economist Group, Justine worked first as a business analyst for McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy, and then as a political and security risk analyst for Control Risks Group, an international business risk consultancy. She holds a BA and an M.Phil from the University of Oxford and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
President and CEO, Grupo MABE
Luis Berrondo was born in Mexico City. He graduated as an Industrial Engineer from Universidad Iberoamericana and obtained an MBA from IPADE.
Luis Berrondo started his career in Mabe in 1982 and ten years after, he became Chairman and CEO. He led Mabe from a medium-sized appliance company with sales of US$ 65 million, in the mid 80’s, to one of the largest appliances companies in America with US$4 billion in revenues in 2008. Today Mabe is the leading appliances company in Latin America with commercial and manufacturing operations across the continent. It has 20,000 employees and 15 plants strategically located to provide appliances to all markets were Mabe has presence. Mabe is also a strong supplier of cookers, refrigerators and clothes dryers to the U.S. market through its partner, General Electric Co. Mr. Berrondo is an active Board member of HSBC Bank, the third largest bank and finance institution in Mexico.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. Berrondo is member of the CMHN (Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios, Mexican Council of Businessmen) which is formed by 36 highly recognized and prestigious businessmen in Mexico. He is also a member of the CEAL, Mexican chapter (Consejo de Empresarios de America Latina, Latin American Businessmen Council) this organization is integrated by 360 business leaders in Latin America.
CEO, Odebrecht Environmental
Fernando Reis is CEO of Odebrecht Environmental, a recently created company of Odebrecht Group targeted to become a major player in water and sewage infrastructure in Brazil.
Prior to joining Odebrecht Environmental, Mr Reis was Head of Project Finance and Exportation of Odebrecht Engineering and Construction. Over the last 25 years Mr Reis acquired experience in developing, structuring, financing and implementing large infrastructure projects in Africa and Latin America. From 1998 to 2005 he was CEO of Odebrecht Engineering in Ecuador and Central America. Before that he worked as an engineer and project manager in several infrastructure projects in Brazil and other African countries. Mr. Fernando Reis has a degree in Civil Engineering and a MBA from University of Chicago.
CEO, CEMEX UK
Gonzalo Galindo has been UK President of global building materials company CEMEX since January 2008. In his current position, Mr Galindo is responsible for a business that generates over £1 billion in annual sales, and has leading positions in aggregates, cement and readymixed concrete. CEMEX UK also produces asphalt, has a significant share of the concrete products sector and employs more than 4,000 people across a network of over 500 locations.
Gonzalo Galindo came to the UK from Madrid, where he was previously Vice President of Strategic Planning and Integrated Functions Coordinator for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia & Australia. In this previous role Mr. Galindo’s main responsibility was to secure growth and extend the CEMEX footprint across the whcol EMEAA&A Region.
Mr Galindo first joined CEMEX in 1998 and has held a number of different leadership roles within the company, including Corporate Director of Strategic Planning in the Mexico Headquarters and Vice President of Planning in the Philippines, before part-leading the Post Merger Integration process (PMI) in the UK following CEMEX’s acquisition of RMC in 2005.
Gonzalo Galindo studied at Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de México and started his career as an analyst with McKinsey & Company. He is married with two children.
Former Chairman and CEO of UBS Investment Bank
Huw Jenkins was appointed CEO of UBS Investment Bank in July 2005 and Chairman & CEO of UBS Investment Bank in January 2006. Previously, he was UBS's Global Head of Equities. He was Chairman of the Investment Bank Management Committee and also Chairman of the Investment Bank Board.
Huw joined UBS in 1996 as Head of Asian Equities. In 1997 he was appointed Co-Head of Asia Pacific Equities and in 1998 Head of Asia Pacific Equities. In 1999, he became Co-Head of US Equities and in 2000 chaired the UBS Warburg Private Clients Business Committee in the US. In the same year, he was appointed Head of Equities for the Americas, located in New York. In October 2007 Huw stepped down to an advisory role at UBS.
Prior to joining UBS, Huw had been employed at BZW (1986-1996), Hill Samuel (1986-1986) and HSBC (1981-1984).
Huw Jenkins graduated from Liverpool University and gained an MBA from the London Business School - he was born in 1958 and is a UK citizen.
