Paul Christensen is Associate Dean and Executive Director of Global Programs and Clinical Associate Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on microfinance and international business. In addition, he helps direct the school's International Business and Markets Program where he is involved in international curriculum development, visiting scholars and executives, student club activities and alumni outreach.

Prior to Kellogg, Christensen served as the founder and President of ShoreCap International Ltd., a $28 million private equity company sponsored by ShoreBank Corporation which invests in financial institutions in developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Having established the company in London, Christensen built a portfolio of 15 leading development finance institutions serving over 1,000,000 microfinance and small business clients and produced annual fund returns in excess of 20%. From 2000-2003, Christensen served as President and CEO of ShoreBank Enterprise Group, a $12 million-asset small business development organization in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to joining ShoreBank, Christensen was an Engagement Manager for the consulting firm, McKinsey and Company, where he focused on operations performance, organizational effectiveness and strategic planning for clients in the financial services, manufacturing, consumer goods, petroleum, and electric utility industries.

Christensen received an MBA with distinction from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College.

Andrew Razeghi is the founder of StrategyLab, Inc., a growth strategy and innovation consulting firm. He is also a lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where he teaches popular coursework on innovation. Razeghi is also a best-selling author, adviser to the executive teams on developing organic growth strategies, and is a frequent speaker on industry and corporate events. His work spans industries: from consumer packaged goods to media, technology to financial services, and entertainment to professional sports. A few of his clients include Allstate, Frito Lay, GE, The New York Times, Novartis, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, and Swiss Tourism.

Razeghi has also served as Vice Chairman of the Wright Centers of Innovation at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. He is also a Limited Partner in Excelerate Labs, the new venture incubator backed by leading venture capital firms and entrepreneurs to foster, promote, and accelerate technology innovation in the Midwest.

He's authored four books, including The Future off Innovation, The Upside of Down: How to Use a Downturn to Your Advantage, and The Riddle: Where Ideas Come from and How to Have Better Ones.

Lucas Mendes is the co-founder of Beleza na Web, one of Brazil's leading online beauty retailers. An engineer graduated from USP and Ecole Polytechnique (France), Mendes began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, followed by a 3-year stint as a management consultant at Bain & Company. At Beleza na Web, he oversees the online aspects of the business - customer acquisition, product development and business intelligence - heading marketing efforts across multiple traffic channels. Since 2010, his company has received investments from leading international VCs, such as Kaszek Ventures and Tiger Global, and in 2012, was voted by E-BIT as "Brazil's Best Beauty Online Store" and one of Brazil's Top 5 E-Commerce Websites overall. Today, Beleza na Web has 80 employees, receives 2 million visits monthly and carries a selection of over 9 thousand items.

Miguel Ramirez Lombana is an active entrepreneur who obtained his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2004.

In 2000 Ramirez co-founded mediotiempo.com, which is now Mexico's largest sports site. In 2010 the company was acquired by Time Warner and Ramirez was assigned to lead and develop the nascent Interactive Division at Grupo Expansion (Time Inc. Mexico), heading all business, sales, and strategy for sites such as: CNNExpansion, CNNMexico, Quien, Chilango and Mediotiempo.

In 2012 Ramirez co-founded Underdog Global Sports Inc., a digital media company that develops sports ventures for the US and Latin American markets. The company's first project is soccerly.com, which launched in January 2013. Ramirez is also involved as a partner, investor and advisor of Kiwilimon.com, Mexico's number one recipe/food community site; is a partner and board member of Lead2action, a leading digital marketing agency; and has recently joined ThePool, a business accelerator and center for entrepreneurs in Mexico City.

Ramirez's entrepreneurial run includes a notable experience in areas and industries such as digital media, sports content, online strategy and advertising, travel, retail and family business.

Ramirez currently lives in San Diego with his wife and two kids.

Cesar Salazar is a Venture Partner at 500 Startups. His role is to source and nurture deals from Spanish speaking Latin America, primarily Mexico. Prior to joining 500 Startups, he was a Founding Partner of Mexican.VC, the most noticeable seed fund and accelerator focused on Mexican internet startups. In 2012, Mexican.VC was acquired by 500 Startups, moving Salazar into his current position.

Salazar was an entrepreneur for more than a decade before moving to the investment side. He is known as a key player in the creation of the Mexican entrepreneurial ecosystem, and has been fostering tech entrepreneurship in his home country through initiatives such as Hackspedition, Startup Dojo and SuperHappy-DevHouse. He also serves as a regional advisor for the Startup Weekend organization.

Salazar earned a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Tecnologico de Monterrey.

A founding partner of Monashees Capital, Acher identifies investment opportunities across markets and works closely with portfolio companies. Before founding Monashees Capital, Acher did venture capital investing in the United States and Latin America with General Atlantic. He also worked in strategy consulting at McKinsey.

Acher has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, a diploma from Fundacao Getulio Vargas, and a bachelors degree from ESPM.

Dr. John L. Ward teaches and studies strategic management, business leadership and family enterprise continuity. He is an active researcher, speaker and consultant on succession, ownership, governance, and philanthropy. Currently he serves on the boards of four companies and three non-profit organizations.

Ward is the author or co-author of several leading books on family business. These include Family Business as Paradox; Keeping the Family Business Healthy; Perpetuating the Family Business: 50 Lessons Learned from Long-Lasting Successful Families in Business; Building A Successful Family Business Board: A Guide for Leaders, Directors, and Families; When Family Businesses are Best: The Parallel Planning Process for Family Harmony and Business Success; and Strategic Planning for the Family Business, among others. Ward is also a co-author of Why Others? Philanthropy and Opportunity and Why Me? Creating, Receiving and Passing On Wealth. He has also authored a collection of 17 booklets (with Craig Aronoff), "The Family Business Leadership Series." Each booklet focuses on a specific issue that family businesses face.

Ward graduated from Northwestern University (B.A.) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (M.B.A. and Ph.D).

Mario Ceratti is the CEO of Ceratti S.A, an Italian sausage company founded by his grandfather in 1932. Ceratti joined Cerrati S.A. in 1978 after working for one year as the assistant of Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Hack in the Technology Institute of Kulmbach. Ceratti was also the president of Sindicarnes - FIESP, the Sao Paulo sausage producers association from 2003 to 2009.

He has a bachelors degree in Business Administration from EAESP-FGV Sao Paulo and was granted a scholarship by AOTS - Japan in Yokohama - where he studied Japanese manufacturing management and quality control techniques.

Fernando Pacheco is a Managing Partner at Promecap, an investment firm based in Mexico City. Promecap was founded in 1997 and has over $1 billion (USD) of assets under management. Pacheco rejoined the firm in 2004 and has been at Promecap for 10 years. He has led the execution of over 20 investments with a total value of $500 million (USD). He has also participated in the execution of investment banking transactions with a total value of over $1.4 billion (USD). In 2010, he led the efforts to raise Promecap's most recent $250 million (USD) special situations private equity fund through the issuance of public securities that were listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. He is also co-responsible for managing the firm and sourcing investment prospects, and leads the analysis, structuring, execution, follow-up and exit of Promecap's investments.

Prior to joining Promecap, Pacheco was a Partner at a boutique investment bank boutique based in Mexico City and a Consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Pacheco has an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Business Administration from ITAM in Mexico City.

David Alan Palfenier is the CEO of Seara Alimentos, a Brazilian food producer. Prior to joining Seara, Palfenier was the President of ConAgra Foods Consumer Foods Snacks and international businesses. He joined ConAgra in 2004 as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and was subsequently President of several business units, including Frozen Foods, Grocery Products, Refrigerated and Specialty Brands, and finally Snacks, both in the United States and internationally. Prior to joining ConAgra Foods, he worked for thirteen years at PepsiCo, including as President of the company's Brazil operations. Before that he spent eight years at P&G.

Palfenier holds a bachelor in business administration with major in marketing from the Eastern Washington University.

Christian Laub is responsible for Credicorp's Regional Investment Banking Division at Banco de Credito. Previously, he served as Head of the Corporate and Investment Banking Division, was head of the Corporate Finance Area and the Capital Markets Area at Banco de Credito, and CEO of Credifondo SAF, the Bank's Mutual Fund Subsidiary and Associate in the Asset Management Area at Atlantic Security Bank in Miami. Before joining Credicorp, he was the Vice President of the Finance Area at Pension Fund Management Company AFP Integra.

Laub holds a BA in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico and an MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Adriano Braun Galvao is vice president of Sylver Consulting, an international innovation research and strategy firm headquartered in Evanston, with a Latin American office in Brasilia.

Galvao has led a number of efforts for the Brazilian government (CGEE) designed to envision the future of key industrial sectors within the country. In collaboration with CGEE, industrial associations and multinational organizations, he has articulated how industry must evolve - and what policies are required to enable this - for Brazil to remain competitive globally. Galvao has spoken twice at the World Future Society conference about this work.

Galvao leads the majority of Sylver Consulting's insights and innovation projects in Latin America. Most recently, he has been conducting consumer research with Web browser giant Mozilla in Brazil and Colombia.

Galvao holds a bachelors degree in design and mechanical engineering from the University of Brasilia, as well as a master's of human-centered design and a Ph.D. in design methods from the Institute of Design at IIT. He has earned distinctions from IDEA/IDSA, BraunPrize and Xerox/ASME.

Dr. Aaron Dychter is the President of ADHOC Consultores Asociados, a consulting company focusing primarily on the infrastructure, transportatiom and energy sectors.

From 1994 to 2006, Dr. Dychter was Mexico's Undersecretary of Transportation within the Department of Communications and Transportation. In that role, he headed the privatization process of Mexico's railroads and airports, a process which included: the design of the corresponding regulatory and legal frameworks, the design of the corresponding strategic industrial organization schemes, the tender processes for the awarding of the corresponding concessions, and the successful IPOs processes of two airport groups (ASUR and GAP). Similarly, he promoted and participated in the financial and administrative restructuring processes of Mexican airlines Aeromexico and Mexicana, a process which resulted in both companies being consolidated into the holding company CINTRA in 1995.

Dr. Dychter has extensive experience developing and executing strategic planning and public policy, and promoting and developing public-private investment projects. Dr. Dychter is a graduate of the Universidad de las Americas and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University.

In 2005, Kenneth Mendiwelson founded Refinancia, a specialty servicer for consumer loans in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. The company specializes in non-traditional niches, providing financial solutions to individuals with defaulted credit records and payment-plan guarantee services through merchants. For his innovative business model, Kenneth was selected Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2008.

Mendiwelson began his career as a Special Project Analyst in Lloyd's Bank in Bogota, where he evaluated the financial feasibility of Colombian companies undergoing debt-restructuring. His next posts included two years as an executive in the New Business Development Group at Fidelity Investments in Boston and two more years as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Bogota. Just prior to founding Refinancia, Mendiwelson was the Chief Executive Officer of a company dedicated to managing consumer NPLs in Colombia.

Mendiwelson holds a degree in Business Administration from Los Andes University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

A Principal at Monitor Deloitte's Chicago office, Rogerio Rizzi de Oliviera is an expert in long term strategy design, scenario planning and growth strategy, serving clients primarily in the manufacturing, energy, engineering and technology sectors.

He leads large client relationships and projects focused on themes such as building long-range strategy and scenarios, creating hyper growth strategies, developing multi-country growth strategies and global M&A projects. Before joining Monitor in 2004 (currently Monitor Deloitte), Rizzi de Oliviera was a Director at the Corporate Venturing arm of Promon, an Engineering, Oil & Gas and Telecom group in Brazil. He is also a former Member of the Board at Brazil's National Quality Foundation (FNQ).

Rizzi de Oliviera is a citizen of Brazil and has worked in Europe, Asia and in virtually all countries in Latin America, from mining in Chile and Peru to construction materials in Central America to insurance in Mexico. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, is a regular presence in the media and has written articles for the business media in Brazil.

He is a Kellogg alumnus and also holds an Electrical Engineering degree, from Universidade de Sao Paulo and a degree in History of Art. He currently lives with wife and two boys in the neighboring town of Kenilworth, IL and also enjoys ocean sailing, designing and building robots, amateur astronomy, writing about wine for a gourmet website and playing piano.