Two former Presidents, three former finance ministers, 12 chief executive officers and more than 30 managing directors, senior managers and faculty members will get together early next year at the HBS campus to participate in the 2007 HBS Latin American Conference.
With the objective of inspiring participants to reflect and act on the fundamental business challenges and opportunities in Latin America; and also to contribute to reposition Latin America in the discussion circles and academic subjects of our student community, a dedicated team of HBS Club Latino Americano members got together to organize the 2007 HBS Latin American Conference that will take place right after the Christmas break, on January 20, 2007, at the Harvard Business School Campus.
The conference is expected to attract more than four hundred undergraduates, graduate students, and academics from Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other nearby institutions in the Cambridge and Boston area (e.g. MIT, Boston University, Babson, Tufts).
Speakers in the Conference include successful businessmen, faculty members, government officials, economic analysts, and corporate executives that share a deep commitment to foster economic growth in Latin America, and that are concerned not only with the poor understanding of the region’s business dynamics and key levers of growth, but also with its worrying lag in competitiveness and prominence relative to other outperforming emerging markets (i.e. China, India).
Among the Conference keynote speakers are C‚sar Gaviria, Former President of Colombia and Secretary General of the Organization of American States; Alejandro Toledo, Former President of Peru; Ralph Alvarez, President and COO of McDonald’s Corporation; Daniel Servitje, CEO of Grupo Bimbo (today one of the most important baking companies around the world); Pedro Aspe, Former Mexican Minister of Finance, CEO of Protego (ranked #1 investment bank in Mexico by Latin Finance magazine in 2005) and co-chairman of Evercore Partners (#1 investment bank boutique by US M&A transactions); and Rudolph Hommes, Managing Director of Capital Advisory Partners and Former Colombian Minister of Finance.
The organizing team has put together seven exciting panels at the Latin American conference: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital and Private Equity; Foreign Investments; Real Estate; Hispanic Markets in the US; Energy and Biofuels; and Social Enterprise.
Speakers in these panels will visit HBS from different countries in Latin America and the U.S., and all of them possess impressive professional trajectories. Such is the case of Miguel Angel Davila who, after graduating from HBS in 1993, launched Cinemex ( www.cinemex.com.mx), a start-up movie theater chain that revolutionized the industry in Mexico and that was acquired by AMC-Lowes in 2002. Another interesting example is that of Juan Vogeler (HBS 95), who has opened his way through the Wall Street jungle and is now Managing Director of Latin American Equity Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch. An exciting trajectory is also the one of Lisa M. Quiroz, one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” named by Hispanic Business. After graduating from an MBA at HBS she went on to pursue a career at Time Inc. where she became founding publisher of People en Espa¤ol y is currently Vice President of Corporate Responsibility for Time Warner Inc.
This conference is definitively a must for those interested in exploring the business and political dynamics of Latin America, as well as for those curious to understand the real potential of the region to generate a solid and sustaining growth trajectory.
To learn more and register for the 2007 HBS Latin American Conference please visit the website www.hbslatamconference.com. Capacity is limited, so don’t wait!
