Gabriel Jaramillo
Chairman and CEO, Sovereign Bank (Santander Group)
Mr. Jaramillo, 58, is married with two daughters. He was born in Bogota, Colombia. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and MBS at California State University.
He joined Grupo Santander in April, 1996, as a Managing Director. At that time, he worked on bank acquisitions in several countries in Latin America. From 1997 to 1999 he served as President of Banco Santander (Colombia). From September to March 2008 he was president of Banco Santander (Brazil). He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Banco Santander (Brazil). Through various acquisitions and organic growth he built a franchise where Santander became the second largest private financial institution in Brazil. In April 2008 he became an advisor to the Chairman of Grupo Santander.
Mr. Jaramillo has 33 years of experience in the financial sector, particularly in Latin America. Before joining Santander, he established a solid career in Citibank (1975-1979 and 1983-1994) and Colombia (1990-1991) operations. Prior to this, he held several important positions based in Miami, Colombia, and Mexico, having at different times the responsibility for commercial activities in various countries. He also headed the Marine Midland Bank - HSBC Chilean operations based in Chile from 1979 to 1983.
Latin American Financial Services
Banco de Credito Centroamericano (Bancentro)
Zamora is founder and chairman of Miami-based Latin American Financial Services (Lafise), a 13-year-old company that has been unique in providing locally run currency exchange and investment-banking services throughout Central America. He also heads Nicaragua's Banco de Credito Centroamericano (Bancentro), which many regard as that nation's most technologically advanced bank.
Zamora began his career with Citibank in Nicaragua twenty-one years ago, amid that nation's civil war. Managing its agribusiness and treasury operations, he became skilled at finding "practical solutions for tough problems." In 1982, he became vice president for Citibank's treasury unit in Venezuela.
During the early l980s, as many foreign banks deserted war-tom Central America, Zamora became determined to help Nicaragua and its neighbors regain services that are vital for trade and commerce. He suggested that Citibank set up a regional operation to convert local currencies to U.S. dollars for foreign companies, also providing that service among local currencies. But his heart told him "I could pursue it myself," and in 1985 he set up Lafise after leaving Citibank under "the best of conditions." Lafise established offices that provided faster service than the few foreign banks that remained in Central America, and it soon became a major trader. It now has offices in six Central American nations, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
In 1991, following Nicaragua's peace accords, Zamora was an early applicant for a newly permitted private banking charter. Bancentro has grown to US$180 million in assets as Nicaragua's second largest private bank. Meanwhile. Lafise has been Central America's leading mergers and acquisitions underwriter. In 1995 it underwrote a $30-million bond issue for Salvadoran airline TACA--Central America's largest bond offering.
Within several years Zamora looks for Central America to adopt a common currency, thus attracting more foreign companies with dollars to exchange. He also anticipates that Central American stock exchanges will gradually add local stock issuance and trading to their activities that now revolve around government bonds. Lafise holds a seat on each of the region's exchanges.
Barry S. Featherman
Founder, President and CEO
Inter-American Economic Council
In this capacity Mr. Featherman has collaborated with Heads of State, Heads of Government, MultiLateral Institutions and Business Leaders on fashioning programs to provide the private sector with direct input during multilateral meetings. Mr. Featherman was also instrumental in the establishment of the BiPartisan 30 Member United States Congressional Caribbean Caucus, an entity dedicated to strengthing the relationship between the United States of America and the Countries of the Caribbean Basin. During the Summer of 2005 Mr. Featherman served as Director of the Transition Team for the Assistant Secretary General elect of the Organization of American States.
From the period 1999 to 2000 he was in charge of the establishment of a manufacturing facility in Queretaro, Mexico working on behalf of a major U.S.vertically integrated switch manufacturing company, CW Industries.
From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Featherman served as President of the U.S. and Canadian Divisions of the Center for Research and Technological Development of the State of Queretaro, Mexico(CIATEQ), one of Mexico's largest government owned engineering companies. The company is at the forefront of Latin American Institutions developing high technology programs and products in Mexico.
Mr. Featherman has spoken widely throughout the Hemisphere on U.S., Latin America and Caribbean relations. He has been an advocate for free and fair trade liberalization. He represented Business Interests at a White House Meeting on the GATT and has spoken throughout the United States to promote Trade Liberalization and Economic Integration with Latin America. Mr. Featherman has helped administer the Future World Leaders Summit for the Presidential Classroom in Washington, DC. and served as a guest professor (Business Law and Multi-National Corporate Finance) at the State University of New Jersey.