Panel 1: Investing in Latin America
Ettore Biagioni
Managing Director, Alothon Group
Ettore V. Biagioni founded Alothon in 2004. Mr. Biagioni has been doing business in Latin America since the mid 1980's and has worked with members of the Alothon Group since 1995. From 1995 to 2004, he served as Head of the Latin America Private Equity Group of Deutsche Bank. He was also Head of Bankers Trust's (BT) Latin America M&A and Private Equity Group prior to the acquisition of BT by Deutsche Bank. Other prior employers include Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York and McKinsey & Company in Italy.
Alejandro Zubillaga
Senior Advisor, Rhone Group
As Warner Music Group’s Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Alejandro (Alex) Zubillaga was responsible for the company’s worldwide digital music strategy and business development activity including its strategic initiatives in wireless, e-commerce, Internet, electronic music distribution and new music formats. Before joining WMG, Zubillaga served as managing director and co-founder of Lexa Partners LLC, a management venture capital group based in New York City, where he was responsible for sourcing, analyzing and managing investment opportunities in the media and technology sectors.
Previously, Zubillaga was founder and managing partner of E-Quest Partners, a venture capital firm focused on Latin America, where he directed the origination of all potential investment opportunities and assisted portfolio companies in raising in excess of $100 million of private equity capital from institutional sources. Prior to that, Zubillaga served as founder, chairman and chief executive officer of NETUNO, a leading provider of broadband communication services in Venezuela. Zubillaga graduated from Babson College with a degree in Business Administration.
Jon Weber
Head of Portfolio Operations Group (SSG) - Goldman Sachs
Mr. Weber heads Portfolio Operations within the Special Situations Group (SSG) at Goldman Sachs, where he manages value enhancement for businesses in which SSG is an influential investor. Previously, Mr. Weber was Carl Icahn’s senior finance and operations executive and served as President of Icahn Enterprises and CEO or board member of several Icahn companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Weber was a Managing Director at JP Morgan and a Principal at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Weber began his career as a corporate lawyer at Weil Gotshal & Manges following his graduation from Harvard Law School. He also holds an MBA and Bachelor's degrees from Babson College.
Panel 2: The Real Story:
Experiencing Entrepreneurial Ventures
Chairman, Pneus Levorin
Celio Levorin is co-founder of three companies in Brazil and currently sits on the board of Levorin Tires. His companies compete in the tire business, real estate development, banking and agribusiness. In 2008, the combined companies had revenues exceeding USD$200 million with annual growth rate of 15%.
Celio began his career in 1975 in the rubber family business. When he started, the company had 50 employees and U$5 million in revenue. During his tenure, Levorin Tires has grown steadily and currently has 1600 workers, U$150 million in revenue and competes in 3 business units (bicycle & motorcycle tires as tire retread products). He is a native of Sao Paulo and has spent most of his youth and adult life there.
Celio has a degree in civil engineering from Mackenzie University (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Corporate social responsibility plays a big role in Celio’s agenda, he is board member of the project “Volta a Escola” (Back to School) which provides high school education for adults.
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Brilla Group
David Brillembourg is chairman and CEO of Brilla Group LLC, which he founded in May 2006. Brilla is an investment and advisory holding company for businesses in the global Latino market.
From 2001 to 2005, David was founder and CEO of Emida Technologies Inc. Emida operates an electronic payment transaction network for prepaid products in 15 countries focused on the Latino market. After raising $15 million in two venture-backed rounds, Emida merged with Debisys in September 2005 to form the largest country footprint prepaid network in the Americas.
In 1995 David founded and was CEO of CycleLogic Inc., a company developing mobile Internet solutions for wireless operators in Latin America. CycleLogic was acquired by StarMedia Networks in September 1999, the largest Internet media company in the Latino market at the time.
David is a director of the SaludArte Foundation, which provides help to needy children in Latin America and a director of LISTA, a national association promoting Latinos in technology. A native Venezuelan, today David lives in Miami with his wife and four young kids. He graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Serial Venezuelean Entrepreneur
Pablo is a Venezuelan businessman whose parents owned a parking lot when there were not many cars in Caracas. He opened one of the first cinemas when it was uncommon to go to the movies. He later established a laundry-mat when people were not used to using this service. That business grew in size to 1,200 employees and more than 120 pickup trucks. At 50 years of age Pablo retired from the laundry business and co-launched “La Primera Entidad de Ahorro y Prestamo”, a bank whose main objective was to lend money to workers to buy houses. He also served as vice-president of “Fe y Alegría”, a Jesuit institution that runs schools for low economic classics in Venezuela.
At 60 years of age Pablo pioneered the water-buffalo business in Venezuela, importing them from 4 countries around the globe. Years later he became president of the International Buffalo Federation. Currently, he is president of one of the largest and most technologically advanced water-buffalo ranches in Venezuela that contains a school that teaches and sustains approximately 300 children and is run by “Fe y Alegría”.
He has been married for 56 years, has 8 sons, 23 grandsons and 1 great granddaughter.
Panel 3: Social Entrepreneurship
Pedro Medina
President, Fundacion Yo Creo en Colombia
Pedro Medina is a social businessman, an educator and a catalyst. As a businessman he founded McDonald’s in Colombia and led it during 7 years, making it the biggest college student’s employer. In 2001, the magazine “Dinero” recognized him as one of the 20 businessmen of the year, and the Colombo-American Commerce Chamber as an “Exemplary Colombian”. He also held managerial places in Sofasa, Propilco and Mobil. In September 2004, President Uribe and the newspaper “El Colombiano” recognized him as an “Examplary Colombian” on the Economy & Business category. The magazine “Cambio” recognized him as one of the 50 leaders under 50 years old in Colombia. He was a finalist on the “Social entrepreneur” contest in 2006, organized by the magazine “Dinero” and The Schawb Foundation. Currently, he is the president of the “Yo Creo en Colombia” (“I believe in Colombia”) Foundation and he also offers consulting services.
Michael Chu
Founder & Managing Director, IGNIA
Michael Chu was appointed a Senior Lecturer in the Initiative on Social Enterprise of the General Management Group of the Harvard Business School in July 2003. He is also Managing Director of the IGNIA Fund, an investment firm based in Monterrey, Mexico, dedicated to investing in commercial enterprises serving low-income populations in developing countries, which he co-founded in 2007. He continues to serve as Senior Advisor and a founding partner of Pegasus Capital, a firm in Buenos Aires dedicated to deploying equity capital in Latin America, with a portfolio which includes major companies in Argentina.
Alfredo Hoyos
Founder, Frisby
Mr. Hoyos studied at the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. After that he worked two years in Farmer Hatchery in Martinsville, Indiana where he learned the poultry farming business.
Mr Hoyos, founded the company PIMPOLLO, a chicken production and processing company which became the second largest in Colombia. In June 1977 he founded FRISBY in Pereira, Colombia. Today FRISBY has 115 restaurants all over Colombia and just opened the company’s US branch with one in Queens, New York. The company has a very special culture where the employee (referred to as collaborator) has a sense of belonging due to their philosophy and their training systems. The FRISBY’s programs of social responsibility are highly regarded in Colombia.
The Company has a school for people of low and middle socioeconomic status (Status 2 and 3), with 550 students from which they have graduated 9 classes thru High School studies. The company awards a college full tuition scholarship to the best students. Another successful educational program in Colombia are the leadership competitions that the company sponsors for college students, where more than 3.000 students have received their training.
Panel 4: Corporate Entrepreneurship
Eric Arcese
Divisional Partner Program Manager for Latin American Division, EMC Corp.
Eric is responsible for developing and delivering Partner Programs and Sales Infrastructure that drive growth in EMC’s Latin American Channel Business. He supports a $100 Million partner community and is charged with building the Sales, Training and Incentive tools that support it. Since joining EMC in 1997 Eric has held various Sales and Marketing roles throughout the US. His work has taken him throughout the Americas and Europe; he has been based out of EMC Offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and is now working out of EMC’s Global Partner Headquarters in Franklin, Massachusetts. Prior to Eric’s current role he managed EMC’s Americas Channel Marketing efforts and prior to that was the Regional Marketing Manager of EMC Latin America. In Sales, as an EMC Account Manager in the United States, he worked in the Mid-Atlantic where he had great success in building new client relationships and consulting to executive management on information infrastructure solutions.
Pierangelo Pacini, Jr.
President, Cartones America S.A.
Pierangelo Pacini is President and Chairman of Cartones America S.A. a manufacturer and marketer of recycled paper and packaging with manufacturing facilities in five countries in Latin America.
After graduating from college Mr. Pacini started a small company which manufactured corrugated packaging in Bogotá, Colombia. Cartones America gradually expanded its operations and presently has 800 employees and operating companies in 5 countries in South America. It has been a pioneer in developing and applying environmentally friendly technologies for the manufacture of recycled paper. It is also involved in several programs related to the social impact and creation of employment of recovered paper industry.
Mr. Pacini earned his undergraduate degree at Babson and an MBA at IMEDE in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Enrique Kramer
Assistant Dean, Universidad ORT Uruguay
Enrique Kramer is the Assistant Dean and Management professor at Universidad ORT Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay. He is also International Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School, doing research on the field of microfinance in Uruguay, mentored by Senior Lecturer Michael Chu. Kramer is also visiting Senior Lecturer at the WHU –Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung–, Vallendar bei Koblenz, Germany on a yearly basis since 2004, teaching the full-time MBA “Strategies for Dynamic Market Environments” course.
From 1991 to the present day, he holds the Chair of Business Policy at Universidad ORT Uruguay. In this position he has developed and taught of the entire Department’s courses for undergraduate management and MBA courses.
Professionally, he also works as a consultant, specialising in strategy. In 1991, he founded a textile mill specialised in the production of hook-and-loop closures. He then sold the company to Velcro Group and acted as Managing Director for Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, being in charge of manufacturing unit in Montevideo, and sales organisation in São Paulo, living part time in this city and Montevideo. Previously he held positions at Price Waterhouse in Montevideo and Boehringer Ingelheim in Barcelona, Spain. In the latter he was a member of the internal counterpart team vis à vis McKinsey & Co. in the strategic evaluation project of the Boehringer Ingelheim Group in Spain.
Kramer has developed of over a dozen case studies on several Uruguayan companies, particularly in the health, soft drinks, apparel, pharmaceutical, software and entertainment industries. Some of theses cases have been prepared with the assistance of exchange students from Univesitat Pompeu Fabra, Universidad de Toledo (Spain) and Endeavor. One of these cases –Video.fon-– was prepared under the guidance of Prof. John Ickis, form INCAE, Costa Rica, and is regularly used in this school.
He holds a CPA and BA in Business degree from Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay and an MBA from IESE in Barcelona, Spain.
Panel 5: Expanding Latin American Businesses
Yonatan Bursztyn
Founder & President, Totto
Yonatan Bursztyn is a Colombian entrepreneur who graduated as Industrial Engineer from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. In 1987 he acquired a leather factory with 40 employees and turned it into Nalsani S.A, producer of the TOTTO brand, specializing in backpacks, travel luggage and accessories. In 1989 Totto started exporting its products to the US, Hong Kong, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Mexico, and consolidated distribution of backpacks and accessories throughout the Colombian market.
Today, Totto has franchises in more than 20 countries in Latin America and Spain, and has built over two decades one of the most prestigious business of clothing, bag, and accessory design, with high quality standards and technology. Totto plans to have 374 stores by the end of 2009 and more than 700 by 2013. Due to his entrepreneurial achievements and strong social commitment, Mr. Bursztyn was nominated in 2008 by Revista Dinero and Ernst & Young as candidate for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
Fernando Schaich
Founder, SEG Ingeniería
Fernando Schaich graduated from the Univesidad de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay as a Chemical Engineer. He joined Shell in 1994 where he was eventually promoted to Technical Services Manager; his main focus was on delivering costs optimization for his customers and the modernization of Shell’s laboratory in Uruguay. During his time in Shell, in 1996, he and two partners from University founded SEG Ingenieria – a company completely focused on achieving cost efficiencies mainly for customers in the Energy Industry. Two years later, in 1998, he left Shell to dedicate full time to his company. Currently, he has managed over 500 projects geared towards the reduction of operating costs, such as energy, telecommunications and logistics. Today SEG Ingenieria has a prescence in three South American countries with its headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay and a staff of almost 80 employees.
In 2007, SEG Ingenieria was selected as an Endeavor Enterprise due to its entrepreneurial character, its innovation and its expansion model. In 2008, SEG Ingenieria was given the prize PRO PYME 2008 for its innovation qualities and the unique qualities of its business.
In addition to running his business, today Fernando is a mentor at Endeavor Uruguay where he participates in tours and gives lectures on entrepreneurship, provides his expertise and his time to new entrepreneurs and businesses that want to succeed in the region.
Arnaldo Garnier
Chairman & CEO, Corporacion Cefa
Executive with more than 20 years of international experience in the industry of the advertising and marketing services , leading operations of more of US$200mm in Latin America. He has worked as President of Garnier Communication Group, a Group that has a strategic alliance with Omnicom Group. From this company he has orchestrated the development of more than 50 Omnicom subsidiaries in the region. Main strengths in the leadership areas, marketing, strategic planning and team work. Fluent in English and Spanish. Oriented towards results, highly motivated and great initiative with additional talents in human resources.