Mr. Salles Filho joined Itaú as Senior Managing Director in August 2002. He is responsible for the domestic and International Private Banking business, managing US$ 35 billion in AUM’s of Latin American Clients. Previously he was Managing Director of Citibank N.A. in New York, leading up the Latin American Affluent Client Segment. Other executive positions held by Mr. Salles Filho include Brazil Country Business Manager for Citigroup´s Global Consumer Bank, Vice Chairman of the Board of Credicard (The South American leading credit/debit card issuer), President of Redecard (market-value of US$12 billion) and Senior Vice President of the Chase Manhattan Bank in charge of Asia Consumer Businesses, based in Hong Kong.

He obtained a degree in Economics and Economics Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has a M.S. degree in Administration from Syracuse University, USA.

Ambassador Rocha has had a distinguished career in the US Foreign Service, having served in numerous positions in both the Department of State in Washington DC and abroad. Until August 2002, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia. Prior to his arrival in La Paz, he served for three years as Charge d’Affaires in Buenos Aires. Preceding his assignment in Argentina, he was the Deputy Principal Officer at the US Interests Section in Havana, Cuba. Ambassador Rocha served in the White House as the Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council in 1994-5. His other posts include the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras and Italy.

In 2000, the President of Argentina bestowed upon him the Order of San Martin for his successful promotion of closer US-Argentine relations. Similarly in 2002, the President of Bolivia honored him with the Condor de los Andes award for his contributions to US-Bolivian relations. And, very importantly, he received in 2001 the US President’s Award for “Sustained Superior Accomplishment in the Conduct of the Foreign Policy of the United States Government.”

Ambassador Rocha is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The University of Miami has appointed him to its International Advisory Board. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Cuba Transition Project of the University of Miami and has also been a member of Dr. Henry Kissinger’s International Council on Terrorism. He is a special advisor to the US military Commander of SOUTHCOM.

After graduating Cum Laude from Yale University with a major in Latin American Studies, Ambassador Rocha obtained a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Masters in International Relations from Georgetown University.

A recognized expert on Latin America and on US policy to the region, Ambassador Rocha is a favorite speaker at business gatherings throughout the world with an interest in doing business in the Americas. Currently, Ambassador Rocha is engaged with Arcos Dorados, the leading McDonalds franchise in Latin America, as Director of Government Relations.

Alfredo Capote is Managing Director of the Investment Banking Division Mexico Coverage at Goldman Sachs, where he joined in 2006 after working for eight years at Morgan Stanley.

His relevant experience includes a $2.0Bn and €500mm UMS Exchange Warrant issue, the $3.2Bn sale of Hylsamex to the Techint Group, Tubos de Acero de Mexico participation in Tenaris’ US$2.2Bn regional roll-up, Femsa’s US$3.6Bn acquisition of Panamco, Grupo Pegaso’s debt restructuring and subsequent US$1.4Bn sale to Telefónica, and BBVA’s defense of the proposed US$4.8bn BBV Probursa- GF Bancomer merger.

He has a MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, MA with honors from ITAM and a BE in Chemical Engineering, magna cum laude, from Manhattan College.

Eric C. Neuman is a managing director and partner of Hicks Equity Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm recently founded by Thomas O. Hicks. He has been a partner of HM Capital Partners (formerly Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst) since December 2000 and an officer of HM Capital since 1993. At HM Capital, Mr. Neuman has been involved in the formation and development of many of the firm’s media investments, including Chancellor Media and Capstar Broadcasting (which were merged into Clear Channel Communications).

In 2002, Mr. Neuman assumed responsibility for HM Capital’s Latin American business, which responsibility he has maintained through the present. Mr. Neuman is Chairman of the Board of Fox Pan American Sports, and currently serves on the boards of directors of Claxson Interactive Group, DirecPath LLC, Intercable (Venezuela), and Grupo Multivision. Mr. Neuman received a BA degree from the University of South Florida and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Alex Malfitani is Treasurer of Azul Brazilian Airlines, a start-up operation founded by David Neeleman (founder and fomer CEO of JetBlue) that is revolutionizing the airline carrier competitive landscape in Brazil. His current responsibilities include decisions about cash management, capital structure, banking operations, customer credit, corporate insurance, and risk management.

Alex has extensive experience in both the airline industry and finance. Prior to Azul, he was Managing Director of Treasury at United Airlines, managing investment positions of up to $4 billion as the head of banking operations and cash management. During his tenure at United, Alex also occupied senior positions in Financial Planning & Analysis and Corporate Strategy. He also worked as an Equity Portfolio Manager for Deutsche Bank.

He holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, from Escola Politecnica at Universidade de Sao Paulo.

Panel 2: Beyond the Brand: Going Local in Global Markets

Guilherme Johannpeter serves as Gerdau Ameristeel’s Vice President and General Manager. In this capacity he directs the special sections operations in Manitoba, Canada and the Gerdau Ameristeel cold finish business.

Mr. Johannpeter began his career with the Gerdau Group in 1985 as a trainee in Porto Alegre, Brazil. After attaining a comprehensive knowledge of the steel production industry he moved to the raw materials side of the business as a scrap buyer in Riograndense. After four years in raw materials Mr. Johannpeter moved into Gerdau’s management as the head of sales for Comercial Gerdau in Sao Paolo, Brazil. While in Gerdau’s management he has held various senior level positions including marketing and planning manager, executive manager of industrial wires, executive director of industrial products and executive director of civil construction.

Mr. Johannpeter obtained his law degree from Unisinos, Brazil and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Ricardo Saldívar is the president of The Home Depot Mexico Division. The Home Depot entered Mexico in 2001. Under Ricardo’s leadership it has expanded its presence from 4 stores in 2 markets to 75 stores in 46 markets today, generating 9,000 jobs and building a business in excess of $1 billion in sales and a CAGR of 40 + % over the past 8 years.

Ricardo joined The Home Depot in 2001 after the Company acquired Total HOME in Mexico. Previously, he was president and CEO of Total HOME, a subsidiary of Grupo Alfa, a leading Mexican conglomerate where he spent 21 years. Ricardo held various senior executive positions for more than 15 years, where he served on the board of directors of several Alfa subsidiaries, including joint ventures with Ford Motor Co.; AT&T and Shaw Industries.

Currently, Ricardo serves as a board member of ANTAD (Mexico’s National Association of Retail and Department Stores), where he is vice president of the specialty retail group. He also is a board member of FEMSA, the largest integrated beverage company in Latin America.

Ricardo is active in philanthropic efforts. He serves as Chairman of Vida y Salud, a nonprofit association that seeks healthcare and education for low-income people.

Ricardo earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and industrial engineering from Monterrey Tech and a master’s degree in systems engineering from Georgia Tech. He holds a diploma in business from IPADE, a leading business school in Mexico.

Al Gallegos has been responsible for the implementation of growth platform projects from early technical development through market introduction. In this role, Al’s responsibilities included the marketing, sales and supply chain of new protein product lines largely driven by consumer-based insights. Working with global business and marketing leaders, Al led the development of strategic planning and relationship management with food company partners for medium and long term growth initiatives, including SoleCina™, a rapidly growing platform which has created value for nutrition companies and consumers in emerging markets. Al and his SoleCina™ Team received the DuPont Mexico, Market Development Excellence Award in December 2004, DuPont’s Marketing & Sales Excellence Award and Sustainable Growth Award in the Fall of 2007. Today, SoleCina™ is a DuPont Critical 50 Project.

Al’s previous responsibilities included Marketing Leader for Solae’s North America Business and Business Development Director for new product lines. Prior to these roles, Al resided in England as the business leader for the Solae’s UK and Ireland Sales and Marketing Operations. Presently, Al is the Global Marketing and Sales Leader for a revolutionary plant based Omega-3 nutrient designed to give nutrition companies a solution to address the nutritional needs of consumers globally. Al is an MBA graduate of the Olin School of Business at Washington University and received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Loyola University in Chicago.

Panel 3: Technology Entrepreneurship in Latin America

Mrs. Blanca Treviño is Chairperson and CEO of Softtek. Since she began her term as CEO in August 2000, the company has grown over 300% in headcount and 400% in revenue. 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.

Mrs. Treviño sits at the board of several organizations 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.

Blanca was featured as a Rising Star in 2007 by Fortune Magazine’s “50 most powerful women in global business” issue.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 Monterrey Tec.

Jorge Aramburo Siegert is the founder and CEO of PSL, a leading Colombian software company serving South and North America. Mr. Aramburo transformed PSL from a small software player to a highly recognized IT firm that has received some of the world’s most prestigious software engineering awards and accreditations, including the IEEE/SEI Software Process Achievement Award in 2007, an accolade previously granted to only 7 technology companies in the world, including giants such as IBM, NASA, Raytheon and Wipro.

Mr. Aramburo has been instrumental in aligning the Colombian government with the belief that technology service exports constitute a promising avenue to help Latin America overcome poverty. Mr. Aramburo has developed and published numerous articles and research papers on software engineering and was recently featured as Key Note Speaker at the 2007 Software Engineering Process Group conference series in Austin, Texas. He has a Masters degree in Business Administration, postgraduate studies in Finance and Marketing, a BS in Computer Science, and a BS in Electronic Engineering. He is also a dedicated teacher in one of Colombia’s most prominent engineering universities.

Eric Perez-Grovas is an entrepreneur, currently launching a new mobile payment system aimed at the BOP Mexican market. Previously, Eric has been involved in several entrepreneurial ventures, being the most relevant one launching and operating MercadoLibre.com in Mexico. In addition, Eric actively advises entrepreneurs and small & medium companies in Mexico. His area of expertise is new business development and innovation. Eric Perez-Grovas has worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Co and at Bain & Co. His consulting experience covered diverse industries and business areas, being the most prominent ones growth strategies for industrial products and energy companies. In addition, Eric has also managed sales teams in the construction and telecommunications sectors.

Eric Perez-Grovas graduated summa cum laude from the Tecnologico de Monterrey with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering and a minor in Finance. He received an MBA and MPP degree from Stanford University, where he was elected President of the Latin American Business School Student Association.