Avinash Vashistha is Chairman and Managing Director for Accenture in India. He is responsible for all Accenture activities in India and for the strategic direction, growth and development of the company’s business in this geography.  Before joining Accenture in January 2011, Avinash was Chairman and CEO of Tholons. Earlier in his career, he founded neoIT, an offshore advisory firm, and prior to that, led Nortel’s R&D globalization efforts in US, UK and India.  He was instrumental in growth of the IT and BPO industry in US, India, Philippines, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Avinash is also a member of several organizations, as well as one of the Board Members of American Chamber of Commerce. Avinash holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, a master’s in Computer Science from the University of Alberta and an MBA from Arizona.

Blanca Treviño is the President and CEO of Softtek, a leading provider of IT services in Latin America. Under Ms. Treviño’s Leadership, Softtek became instrumental in Mexico’s opening its doors to the US as a provider of IT services, creating and shaping Near Shore®, a Softtek’s registered trademark and an industry-specific term employed to define the outsourcing services delivered from neighboring countries. Her more than 25 years of experience have earned her international acknowledgement for her role in promoting the IT services industry in and from emerging countries. For these reasons, she has helped different governments to outline strategies oriented to increasing Latin America’s participation in IT. Ms. Treviño has consolidated herself as an eloquent lecturer, participating in many national and international conferences and forums on entrepreneurship, IT and the role of women in business. She was the first woman to be ever included in the IAOP Outsourcing Hall of Fame. Ms. Treviño earned a degree in Computer Science from Monterrey Technological Institute of Higher Education.

Camille Selvon Abrahams is an award winning multi-media producer & animator who returned to Trinidad & Tobago after spending five years honing her animation and multi-media production skills in the United Kingdom. She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Media and Communications specializing in animation. Her Final Year animation ‘The MasterPEACE’, won the RTS Award in London. Camille is the Founder and Creative Director of Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival. She is also currently at the University of Trinidad and Tobago as Program Administrator and lecturer for the Animation Studies Diploma. Camille launched in 2003 Full Circle Animation Studio, one of the leading animation studios in the Caribbean. It provides pre-production, production and outsourcing animation services to the media and animation markets in the region. The studio has a longstanding record and currently provides services to a number of high profile organizations among them, Government Ministries, Drugs Awareness and AIDS programs, commercials and animation for music bands.

Journalist, executive director of AméricaEconomía Internacional since October 2011. He has worked in several Chilean and international print media such as Capital, La Tercera, The Clinic, and Business Week. He was awarded the 3rd Ibero American Journalism Award of the Madrid Business Institute, under the category “Magazine Interview” for the article called "Gracias por Fumar" (Thanks for smoking), published by AméricaEconomía in December 2012. He holds a degree in Journalism from the Valparaíso Catholic University, and has earned a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Communications from the ESCP (École supérieure de Commerce de Paris). He has published four novels and two short story books.

Claudia Palacios holds a degree in Journalism from the Javeriana University of Bogota. Over the 16 years of her career, she has worked as a presenter and reporter for Caracol Channel in Colombia. Additionally, she participates in the working table of the La W Colombia radio morning news and writes a Sunday’s interview for El Pueblo Cali newspaper. She is constantly invited to participate in social and political forums as a moderator. She usually lectures on leadership and journalism in different conferences and congresses. In 2013, Ms. Palacios published her first book "¿Te vas o te quedas?", containing thirty stories of migrants. The purpose of the book is to provide future migrants with tools to make their experiences as successful as they wish them to be.

Damian Kirzner has a Bachelor Degree in Social Communication from the UBA – Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is a Film and TV General Producer and Artistic Director, Transmedia specialist. He was General Producer and/or Artistic Director of the main Argentinian TV producer companies for 25 years, working for firms such as Promofilm, Ideas del Sur and Cuatro Cabezas.
Later, he devoted himself to the independent production and worked in partnership with the main TV benchmarks of the region. He was partner of Marcelo Tinelli, Horacio Levin and Carlos Rottemberg; Lucía Suarez, Matías Martin in “Fatto in casa”, Endemol Argentina in many businesses, and Santiago Bilinkis in “New Sock”.
In his Artistic Director and Producer role, he made TV programs in all the air channels of Argentina and in the most important signals of the region, creating great commercial successes such as “Sorpresa y Media”, “Fugitivos”, “Ardetroya”, “Tiempo de Siembra”, to name a few.
As a media consultant he has worked in Italy, Spain, Uruguay, and Argentina. Many of his products have received the Argentinian award “Martin Fierro” (for instance, “Sorpresa y Media”, “Señoras y Señores”, “Todo x $2”, “Okupas”, etc.) and he personally received the golden medal in the New York Festival (2000) due to the series “Cuatro Amigas”.
In 2011, he was named the “Young Creative Media Entrepeneur” of the year (YCME) by the British Council.

Elías Arze holds a Civil Engineering degree from the Chile University. In 1973, Mr. Arze started working for the engineering consulting firm Arze, Reciné y Asociados Ingenieros Consultores, currently known as WorleyParsons Chile. He has been serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company since March 2013. He has served as director and/or president of several corporations, including sanitary services, financial lease, engineering and university program accreditation companies. He is the Chairman of the Consulting Engineer Association (AIC). He has also been a board member of many union organizations, such as the Engineer Institute, the Capital Goods Technological Development Corporation and Minnovex, an association for the development of suppliers for the mining industry. He was a lecturer at the School of Engineering of Chile University from 1970 to November 2010, and at the School of Engineering at the Chilean Catholic University in 1975. He is a numerary member of the Engineering Academy.

Eric Simonson has more than 15 years of sourcing strategy and global services industry analysis expertise. His overarching goal is to ensure enterprises, service providers, and investors have the combination of fact- and experience-based insight they require to make informed, actionable, impactful, and value-generating global services decisions. Key research initiatives Eric has conceived, driven and helped create include: the industry’s first-ever detailed coverage of BPO in an offshore context, published in 2008 in partnership with NASSCOM; Everest Group’s Market Vista offering, which provides a unique, comprehensive look into the key forces and metrics defining the market; ongoing coverage of the global in-house center (GIC) market; and most recently, a joint survey with Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) that looks at industry-specific strategies in shared services and outsourcing.

Fabrizio Opertti is the Chief of the Trade and Investment Unit of the IBD’s Integration and Trade Sector. He is in charge of monitoring an operative group engaged in the design and implementation of a wide project portfolio to promote trade and foreign direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is also a leader of IDB’s initiatives in the service globalization sector, after leading the preparation of strategies for offshoring service promotion in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Colombia. Fabrizio Opertti has lead important regional trade events such as: Asia LAC 2012 (Hangzhou), Outsource2LAC 2012 (Medellin) and the 2012 Business Summit of the Americas (Cartagena), among others. Fabrizio Opertti holds an MBA from the Business School of Johns Hopkins University, and a Master’s of Science in Foreign Service from the University of Georgetown.

He is Chief Information and Innovation Officer (CIIO) and Global Purchasing Chairman with Ferrovial. He is a Member of the Executive Committee of Ferrovial, a Member of the advisory board in Oracle worldwide, IDC, and Cionet. President of the Advisory Board Ametic ( TIC Association Spain).Naval Engineer, Master's Degree in Business Administration and Computer Science, PAD IESE, INSEAD Advanced Management Program, diplomas in business administration from Harvard, MIT and Cranfield. He has worked for several important companies, including IBM, CIO in Alcatel, CIO Telefónica Data, and CIO of Banco de España, Member of the ITC European Central Bank, General Secretary of XBRL Spain and member of the Worldwide Committee. Author of several articles and whitepapers. Interviews in TV, magazines and daily newspapers, and Conferences in Europe, America, and Asia in several Business Schools. He has been awarded a number of recognitions, including CIO of the year 2007 in Spain; European outsourcer project of the year 2010; Best IT career Spain 2012; EOA, and Oracle Awards 2013, to name but a few.

Franz Ruz is Rooter’s partner, a lawyer and strategic consultant expert in international operations and global services. He has remarkable experience as an international legal advisor of IT and creative firms and entities from the United States and European as well as Latin American countries.
He is a postgraduate professor in programs of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, IE Business School, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Escuela de Organización Oficial (Spain), Universidad de Alicante, Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, inter alia. In addition, he is a professor of the Ibero-American virtual courses about the UnX platform, a Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), UNED, Telefónica and Santander Bank’s initiative.
Franz has worked as a consultant in projects from the Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior (ICEX), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain), Consejo Nacional de Cultura y las Artes (Chile), and in projects of international organizations such as CEPAL, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the European Commission, among other institutions.

Gabriel Rshaid is currently the Headmaster of St. Andrew’s Scots School, a K-12 private school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Professional Development Associate with the Leadership and Learning Center in Denver, Colorado. He is a former Board member of ASCD and Chair of ESSARP, currently organizing its annual international conference. He is the author of the books “Learning for the Future: Rethinking Schools in the 21st Century” and the upcoming “The 21st Century Classroom”, as well as having contributed chapters and articles to several books and publications on the topic of 21st Century Learning and the future of education in general. His passion for learning and the belief in the power of the emerging technologies to radically change the educational landscape for good have taken him all over the world in lecturing and delivering presentations and workshops on creating and implementing a new educational model. Gabriel currently resides in Buenos Aires with his wife and teenage daughter and son.

Head of Channel Sales - Google Latin America
Gonzalo has leaded the sales area of Google products for SMEs through delivery channels in the South of Latin America since November, 2011. Established in Buenos Aires, his main role is the development and implementation of the Premium Partner Program for SMEs in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
Formerly, he worked for Dell Inc. for four years, where he was responsible for the products area for the retail channels and also for the distributors for the Southern Cone of Latin America. Before working for Dell, he worked for 9 years in sales, marketing and strategy areas in mass consumer products companies.
Gonzalo is an Industrial Engineer, has a Postgraduate Degree in Marketing from the Universidad de San Andrés and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He has been an entrepreneur for 25 years. His career in technology started 19 years ago, when he founded Axesnet, the first Colombian website company which developed the websites of major Colombian companies such as Norma and Ecopetrol. He co-founded the soccer website futbolred.com (http://futbolred.com), which was eventually sold to El Tiempo newspaper. He is the co-founder of Celumania (2003), a mobile-content company which has spread its operations to 14 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Over 2013, he has worked as the CEO for Aldeamo, which gathers together 17 companies from 14 different countries. Aldeamo makes people’s lives easier by allowing them to use their cell phones for more than phone calls. The SMS and USSD technologies used by the company are applicable to any cell phone model, regardless of whether it has an internet connection or not. Aldeamo provides solutions to ordinary people. We are working hard to demonstrate that cell phones can provide a solution to poverty.

Javier Guerrero graduated in 2009 with a degree in Multimedia Design from the University of Huddersfield, UK. In England, he was art director for the student art magazine “Street Graphic”. In late 2009 he returned to El Salvador to become the director for Happy Punk Panda, a creative digital agency. He works with brands such as Toyota, Miller Lite, Chevrolet, Grupo Roble, Save the Children among other top regional brands. Faculty member since he was 22 years old for “Escuela de comunicaciones Monica Herrera” a prestigious university in El Salvador. In 2012 he won regional advertising awards for “The citizen Comic book from Elfaro.net “ such as “Premio Jade” “Ojo de Iberoamerica” and “Festival Caribe” even earning one of the only 3 shortlist for Cannes El Salvador has ever received.

Jerry Luftman’s career includes strategic positions in management (Information Technology and consulting), management consulting, Information Systems, and education. His proficiency in business-IT alignment, eighteen books, published research, consulting, mentoring, and teaching/speaking engagements further exemplify Dr. Luftman’s expertise and leadership in his field. After a notable twenty-two year career with IBM, he had an exemplary career for almost twenty years as Distinguished Professor, and Founder and Executive Director of the Stevens Institute Information Systems Programs. Driven by the strong demand for a global executive education program focusing on managing information technology, Dr. Luftman has leveraged his vast experience with his strong network of IT management associations, and prominent IT academics, to provide a valuable and unique offering via Global Institute for IT Management. Dr. Luftman most recently pioneered the vehicle for assessing the maturity of IT-business alignment. He also serves on the Executive Board of several companies, associations, and publications.

Juan Navarro is a founding partner of Hexacta, a leading Latin American Software Development firm, with offices in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Hexacta provides services to clients in the US and South America, and has also implemented projects in Europe, Africa and Asia. Its impressive roster of clients includes names such as Shell, Comcast, EMC and Microsoft. At the end of 2009 Hexacta was recognized as the Best IT Company of the year by the Chamber of IT and Software Services of Argentina (CESSI), an award that was delivered by the President of the Argentina, Cristina Kirchner. Hexacta is well known for the quality of its staff and its special work environment. It is often ranked among the best companies to work for in Argentina by the Great Place to Work survey (#2 in 2010, #6 in 2011). Before starting Hexacta, Juan Navarro worked for McKinsey and Co. in Buenos Aires, and before that for Citibank in Madrid. Mr. Navarro holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the University of the Republic of Uruguay and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

IDA is Ireland’s inward investment promotion agency with responsibility for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland. Katie is a Vice President and a founding member of the Growth Markets Division with responsibility for attracting foreign direct investment from Emerging Markets including Brazil, Russia, India and China. She was instrumental in establishing the office in Mumbai and spent three months working in Mumbai, India. She has worked in the IDA New York office, as Vice President, Financial Services, for two years. She has also worked in the Financial Services Division, the Information Communications and Technology Division and the Press and PR Division of IDA Ireland. Katie has an extensive understanding of foreign direct investment with over 13 years’ experience in IDA. Katie has a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategy and Innovation (2011) from the Irish Management Institute, a Master’s of Science in Strategic Management (2002) from Dublin Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business and Politics (2000) from Trinity College Dublin.

Kirk Laughlin is Managing Director of Nearshore Americas – a widely respected online publication which examines the powerful emergence of Latin America as a global leader of outsourcing services and tech innovation. He has emerged as one of the foremost thought-leaders on the expansion of cross-border trade and ICT and global services investment in the Americas. Next Coast Media offers clients marketing platforms, advisory services, content and lead generation services, Latin America-focused trade missions and customized research and paid content. Laughlin speaks frequently at conferences throughout the Americas. Earlier, Kirk was a VP and Managing Director at Ziff Davis Enterprise, based in New York City.

General Director – Google Argentina
Lino Cattaruzzi has been the General Director of Google Argentina since May, 2012. Formerly, he worked in the headquarter offices of Google in California, where he leaded the global team of Sales Strategy for the Online Media Solutions business. He was also in charge of the organization of Google’s online sales for Germany, Switzerland and Austria from the Irish headquarter. Previously, he performed many management roles for AOL Latin America, including the Presidency and General Direction of the Argentinian operation.
Lino has a bachelor degree in Computing from the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa and carried the Marketing Executive Program of the IAE.
Lino is Argentinian; he is married to Anne Laure, of French nationality, and has 2 children. Among his hobbies he highlights cooking (he cooked at her wife’s restaurant in France during hi sabbatical year), squash and philately. An interesting fact to point out is that he sold his restaurant in Paris through Google Adwords!

Luis Robbio is the current Chairman and CEO of BSF S.A. known as Belatrix. Fifteen years ago, he launched his own business, focusing on software development, taking advantage of his extensive corporate background. He worked in Japan, China, United States, Norway, France, Italy, Germany, and Sweden, among others. He has a degree in Electronic Engineer and obtained a MBA. Currently, the company has three centers of development in the province of Mendoza, Argentina and another development center in Lima, Peru. Belatrix has grown continuously since its foundation, with a variable rate from 30% to 40% per year, and has exported practically 100% of its services to clients located in The United States, England, Canada and Germany. Luis Robbio participates actively in business roundtables all over the world, in connection with the core business of the company. Luis Robbio was CEO and President of Eastern Ocean Solution, a Chinese company which provides Software Solution.

CEO
Allied Global
In 2005, Manuel Gordo co-founded Allied Global, an outsourcing Services Company located in the city of Guatemala. From its beginning, Mr. Gordo has been the Managing Director, being a key element of the company’s growth, management and strategy. His role has been vital in terms of the company’s dramatic growth from a call center with 50 employees to over 6,500 collaborators working in 20 locations from 4 different countries. However, Manuel Gordo began his professional career managing massive consumption food industry –he is still involved in this task. Manuel’s passion for people’s development and for the creation of a better society led him to participate in charity and social institutions. Manuel Gordo holds a degree in Food Engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville FL.

Marciano Verdi is Founder/CEO of PeopleOne Corporation SA. PeopleOne is a company focused on IT managed services with operations in Brazil, México and USA. Before founding PeopleOne in 2008, Marciano worked on business sectors of companies such as TOTVS, Datasul, SAP, Compass Group, Texaco and Phillip Morris. While working in Datasul, he worked closely with many countries in Latin America, USA and Canada. He graduated in Business Administration in 1996 in Brazil and was awarded a MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburg in 2007.

Maria Angela “Marla” De Castro Rausch graduated in Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, (Major in Journalism) from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City She has been President/CEO of Animation Vertigo and Animation Vertigo Asia since 2004.
Animation Vertigo specializes in motion capture tracking and animation solutions in film, television and video games. She was in charge of building Animation Vertigo and managing the multi-level, complex and demanding field of animation entertainment with clients from all parts of the world.

Martin has been an entrepreneur since his early youth. In 2003 he founded Globant together with 3 friends, with the aim of building a Company leader in the region. In only a few years their dream came true: Globant is now a multinational focused on the creation of innovative software products.
Side by side with his 3 friends, Martin developed his entrepreneurial potential, and together with them and an excellent management team they took that little start up to an organization with more than 2800 professionals and presence in the US, UK, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina.
Martín always believed that it was necessary to bring opportunities to talent from all across the region, thus encouraging the development of the IT ecosystem all across Latin America. With this in mind, Globant pursued geographic expansion from day one. Nowadays, IT professionals from cities like Tandil, Resistencia, Tucumán, Bahía Blanca, Rosario, Córdoba, La Plata and Buenos Aires, in Argentina; Montevideo, in Uruguay; Bogotá, in Colombia; San Pablo, in Brazil; and San Francisco, in the US; have more professional growth opportunities working for world class customers such as Electronic Arts, Zynga, Linkedin and Coca Cola.
He is also deeply passionate about inspiring future entrepreneurs, that´s why he frequently gives lectures at different events and has been a jury at the Endeavor Entrepreneurs panel and at La Red Innova. The MIT Sloan School of Management wrote a business case about Globant entitled: “Globant, Leading the IT Revolution in Latin America”, and invited Martin to give lectures to their MBA students. Harvard and Stanford also wrote business cases to study the company. Martín was selected Endeavor Entrepreneur 2005 and has won a Konex Award as one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of 2008. He was selected as one the Argentinean Creative of 2009 (Círculo de Creativos de la Argentina) and was awarded with the Security Award as one of the most distinguished Businessmen of the year (2009). In 2009 he also received the “Excellence Award” (by America Economía Magazine), recognition given to entrepreneurs and executives that contribute to the growth of Latin American businesses. In 2011, Latin Trade has also recognized Martin as Emerging CEO of the Year. He is a member of the Young President´s Organization (YPO), a Board Member of Endeavor Argentina and was recognized with the Entrepreneur of the Year award by Ernst & Young (2013). Martín holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from La Plata University and a Master degree in Business Administration from CEMA University.

Founding Partner and CEO of Studio Flex.
Founding Partner of Costa Rica Animations Holding.
Producer and art director of animated movies for American producers, such as Herald Entertainment , Motion Pixel Corporation, Imagine Peace 47, etc.
General producer at the animated series Outopus y Flea Circus.
Martin has worked as main producer, art director and assistant director in animated products that have won more than twenty local and international prizes, such as the Silver Remi in the WorldFest in Houston, the Silver Crow from the ICVM in the Switzerland and Miami versions, the Gold Kahuana in the Honolulu Film Festival of Hawaii, etc.
In addition, he was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Financial Newspaper El Financiero of the Grupo Nación. Academically, he studied Graphic Design in the Dr. José Matías Delgado University, in El Salvador; Architecture, in El Salvador University, and Applied Arts in the Carlos Alberto Imery Institue, in El Salvador. He has recently been certified as Master Class in Toon Boom Story Board, after taking the profession upgrade course of CETAV.

Matias Avila-Nores co-founded Novadios, LLC in 2008. Novadios is a “virtual in-house counsel” service that manages the day-to-day and legal needs of its customers using a mix of experienced US lawyers together with Argentine lawyers and law clerks. Using onshore and offshore labor base, Novadios provides a range of legal services. Novadios has a talented temporary and contract workforce to deliver excellence and affordability to meet the diverse needs of its customers. Novadios is based in the U.S. and holds its operations office in Cordoba, Argentina. Before Novadios, Matias worked as an associate at both Allende & Brea and the Mercosur office of the Paris-based law firm Bureau Francis Lefebvre. During that time he was mostly involved in M&A transactions, foreign investment and commercial agreements Matias is an attorney from the National University of Córdoba (Argentina). He has a Master Degree in Business Law from the Austral University (Buenos Aires). Thereafter, in 2002 he graduated with an LL.M. degree from Duke University School of Law. Matias is a member of both the Buenos Aires and the Cordoba Bar Associations.

Pablo M. Garcia is the Lead Economist in charge of the IDB regional hub for trade and investment activities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, where he leads the design and implementation of projects related to export promotion, investment attraction and trade in services. He is also the Export and Investment Promotion Cluster Coordinator for the Trade and Investment Unit. Previously at the IDB he also was country economist and coordinator for Honduras and Nicaragua. He has worked previously as a Chief Economist for the Center of Production Studies in Argentina, and consulted in the private sector to several national and international organizations (IDB, World Bank, USAID). He has authored studies on international economy, trade in services, and intra-industry trade. He has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Buenos Aires. Pablo holds a Master’s degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University (USA), a Master’s degree in Economics from Di Tella University and a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Pablo is business school graduate with international studies at Stanford University (Advanced Management College). He has occupied managerial positions at Telecommunications companies, where was manager of the Commercial Department and then General Manager of leading companies, both local and international, of BPO-Contact Center, with emphasis on projects of Customer Care, Technical Support, Sales, Quality Management, Back Office and KPO, in the Telecommunications, Technology Financial, Insurance, Industrial, Utilities, Consumer Products, Health, and Transportation sectors, among others.
Pablo has been the General Manager of Teleperformance Chile since it was launched in 2006. The company has more than 1500 employees and provides bilingual, English and Spanish services for the markets in the USA, Spain and the local market. He was member of the Board of Directors of Teleperformance Chile, President and Director of the ACEC (Association of Call-Contact Center Companies) where served for five years. Member of the Global Services Committee of the Ministry of Economy-Corfo for three years. He currently serves as Director of Everis BPO Chile, which belongs to Everis Group, with a presence in over 12 countries and operations on shore, near shore and off shore.

Paulina Ramirez is a researcher and lecturer of international business and innovation at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham (UK). Paulina has worked on a number of OECD and European Union funded research projects focused on the relationship between global R&D networks and national innovation and business systems. Paulina’s research interests also include the rise of new technologies in the area of life sciences and include a study of the role of regional innovation networks in the emergence of stem cells technologies in the UK. As part of the European Union funded SERVICEGAP research project, Paulina has just completed a study of R&D outsourcing in the European and US pharmaceutical industry. Paulina has published papers in Research Policy, Work, Employment and Society, European Urban and Regional Studies as well as reports for the OECD, The West of Ireland’s Development Board and the European Union.

Pratap Dhopte is a first generation entrepreneur and a technocrat. Trained as a Computer Engineer from the University of Pune, India, he holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University, California. Prior to starting his entrepreneurial journey, he worked for more than 12 years in the US for top IT global firms like Oracle. In 2004, he founded the Excelize Group of companies, an architectural outsourcing firm providing services to some of the leading architects, contractors and real estate developers in US, Mid-East and India. Excelize leverages the latest technology solutions like BIM, to help the Architectural-Engineer-Construction (AEC) industry to improve design and execute construction projects worldwide. Under his entrepreneurial leadership, Excelize has rapidly grown as an outsourcing firm providing CAD & BIM services for International Airport Terminals, 5 Star Hotels, Commercial Offices, High-end Residential & Institutional projects worldwide. Excelize’s clients are some of the top firms in US and India. Pratap is engaged in the local community as a change advocate, mentor and advisor.

Ramiro Hernández is a Senior Manager at gA within the Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry segment. With over 12 years of experience working in multicultural business environments, he has been part of the leadership leading to the creation of gA’s Center of Excellence that currently supports more than 20,000 users in 4 languages including several operations around the globe. Over the years, Mr. Hernández has participated and led regional and global IT initiatives, focused on transforming their customer’s business using technology as a driver. Mr. Hernandez holds a degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Argentina, and also has a Degree on Human Capital Management from the University of Belgrano.

Rolando Liendo Chicata is Doctor(c) in Business Administration, Maastricht School of Management (MSM), Holland; he was awarded an MBA from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), Canada, a MBA from the Management School for Graduates (ESAN), Peru, and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, Maastricht School of Management (MSM), Holland. Additionally, he holds a Computer Engineer degree from the National Engineering University of Peru. He was President of the Peruvian Software Producers Association (APESOFT) of the Peruvian Software Competitiveness Support Program. He is the CEO of LOLIMSA, a technology company with presence in 12 countries; he is also the President of Techno Economy Research Institute and Chairman of the Accreditation Committee of System and Computer Engineering diplomas in Peru.

Romina Adduci is IDC’s Telecommunications Research and Consulting Director for Latin America. She has a broad experience in the telecommunication market as both an analyst and service provider employee. Ms. Adduci’s areas of expertise include Internet & broadband access, paid TV, data center market & outsourcing, domestic & international data services, IP telephony, mobile markets, VPN, enterprise & carrier equipment, network security solutions, domestic, rural and long distance telephony, managed services, unified communications, mobility, Cloud, etc. Prior to joining IDC, she led the Latin American research and consulting practice for Frost & Sullivan. In this capacity, she was responsible for all technology areas of telecommunications and information technology. In the 1990’s, Romina Adduci was responsible for regulatory compliance and monitoring of the creation of a large telecommunications LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution Service) start up called LMDS Telecomunicaciones Interactivas SA. Ms. Adduci holds a BA in Political Science from Buenos Aires University, Argentina, and a MA in Public Management from Saint Andrews University, Argentina.

Santiago Ceria has been the Executive Director of the Sadosky Foundation since 2011. He has 20 years of experience in the software development Industry. From 2000 to 2011 he was managing partner of Hexacta, where he leaded different projects and was responsible for the procedures that culminated in the CMM level 4 evaluation in 2005. Formerly, he worked for Cartelco, Citibank, Banco Río, AFIP and Pragma Consultores.
Santiago achieved his Bachelor Degree in Systems Analysis from the Engineering School of the UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires) in 1990 and his Master of Software Engineering from the Carnegie Mellon University in 1993.
He was professor in the UCA, the ITBA, CAECE University, and in the Engineering School of the UBA. Nowadays, he is a professor of the Exact and Natural Science School of the UBA and Associate Director of its Computing Department.
He has been a member of the Boards and Commissions of many institutions such as CESSI, FONSOFT, the CONEAU, and the UBA.

Santiago is currently the Executive Director of the Chamber of BPO&IT at the National Business Association of Colombia – ANDI. He leads and manages ANDI’s activities and projects to strengthen the BPO, ITO & KPO sector and the country as a global sourcing destination, especially to pursue sustainable economic growth. He collaborates with government, academia and international associations to develop a more business friendly environment, promote best practices and to stimulate increases in productivity and efficiency. Frequent speaker in international and regional events and his opinions are valued by different. Mr. Pinzon is a lawyer with MPA (Master in Public Administration (MPA) degree with concentration on International Development at the School of Public Affairs of American University, Washington D.C. He was also the first Chairman of the IAOP Latin America Regional Board (current member), was also member of the Strategic Advisory Board, and is currently the co-chair of the IAOP Colombia Chapter and Transboundary Chapter of IAOP. Santiago was named Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Outsourcing Executives for 2012 and 2013 of Nearshore Americas.

Sebastian Serrano is an enthusiastic entrepreneur and programmer.
In 2006, he decided to continue his career as a developer and started working for Wiral sweden startup. In 2008, he co-founded WeGIF, a website to make animations online. In 2009, he started devsAr, a development shop specialized in outsoucing web and mobile application development. Currently, he is CEO at Bitpagos, a payment gateway that accepts Bitcoin. He has a Computer Science degree from the University of La Plata (UNLP); currently, he is completing an MBA from the same university. Additionally, he runs a local Google Developer Group, participates in events like the Startup Weekend and Python related events.

Sebastian Zuccon is a Senior Vice President with Compass Lexecon. Mr. Zuccon has a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics, Masters in Finance from Universidad di Tella, and a B.A in Economics from Universidad de Buenos Aires.
He specializes in assessing damages in treaty disputes, commercial arbitrations and litigations. He has participated in more than 30 international arbitration cases under ICSID, ICC, SCC, AAA and UNCITRAL rules.
His arbitration experience comprises several industries like airports, banking, electricity, infrastructure, natural gas, oil, to name a few in countries from Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, and Asia.
Sebastian previously worked with LECG in Paris and in Buenos Aires, KPMG Corporate Finance, and also at the Argentinean Ministry of Economics.
Sebastian has co-authored with Manuel Abdala and Pablo Spiller Chorzów’s Compensation Standard: As Applied in ADC v Hungary, published by the Institute of Transnational Arbitration. Volume 21. Winter 2007.

He was born in Viña del Mar, Chile. He has an engineering diploma in microelectronics from Institut Nationale Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG - France) and an electronic engineering diploma from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria (Chile). Currently, he is R&D Group Director and General Manager of Synopsys Chile, leader in Electronic Design Automation. He opened the Synopsys Chile R&D Center in 2006. Before joining Synopsys, he worked for different Chilean and multinational companies, such as Motorola Semiconductors, Honeywell Bull, VLSI technology Inc., and Compass Design Automation Inc. He started to work in EDA in 1988 in VLSI Technology Inc. where he developed synthesis tools being one of the pioneers of this new technology. From 2006 to 2008 he was member of the "Chilean Offshoring Committee" organized by the Minister of Economy of Chile. In 2010 he was awarded as "Innovator of the Year in Services Export". In 2012 he was nominated to best engineer of Chile. He is also member of several Technical Program Committees on Circuit Design and Embedded Systems. Since 2012 he is chair of the IEEE Chilean chapter of the CASS.

With over 8 years of multi-geography experience in globalization, Vikrant has advised organizations and governments on services globalization and allied initiatives. He has been part of various globalization initiatives with organizations that have spanned activities like sourcing strategy, cost & location optimization and performance benchmarking. He has developed deep insights into location selection, operations setup and scale-up of global operations. He has been part of several government led initiative on building & executing IT/BPO competitiveness plans. Prior to joining Tholons, Vikrant was a Sr. Consultant at Aon Hewitt’s Transaction & Transformation Practice, and worked on assignments spanning HR Transformation, Shared Services Design and Leadership Development.

Vivek Hatti serves as Client Director at CPA Global. He is a seasoned and experienced U.S. qualified legal professional with over 10 years of extensive experience in complex litigation cases before federal and state courts in the United States. Vivek works with corporations and law firms globally to create, manage and deliver cost-effective on-shore, off-shore and multi-shore solutions in the areas of end-to-end e-discovery; litigation support. Prior to joining CPA Global, Vivek litigated complex commercial, financial, and products liability cases at the U.S. law firms of Spriggs & Hollingsworth, Washington, DC, and Arter & Hadden, Cleveland, Ohio. Vivek holds a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC, USA, an M.A. in Security Policy, also from The George Washington University, and a B.A. with High Honors from The College of William & Mary.

Viviana Ishida holds a Nuclear Engineering degree from Balseiro Institute of Argentina. She has 23 years of experience in the nuclear area in Argentina, Japan and the USA. In Argentina, she is currently a Manager of Nuclear Services for Nuclear Projects Division. Currently, she is also in charge of R&D projects requested by US companies. Before that, she worked as a Nuclear Power Plant and Research Reactors Program Manager and the project manager of Argentina's Small and Medium Reactor (CAREM) for the Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina (CNEA). She has more than 13 years of experiences working for Mitsubishi Group in Japan and USA. In Japan, she was focused first in core design and then in project manager of evolutionary and revolutionary reactor and fuel designs for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. She also worked 5 years in USA as Engineering Manager and later as General Manager of Licensing Department of Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems. She has several patents and more than 35 international publications.

Dr. Wanda Lopuch’s unique combination of entrepreneurial drive, global mindset, multi-language executive skills, and expertise in corporate social responsibility, have been critical in allowing her to exploit growth opportunities in various technology sectors. In doing so, Dr. Lopuch advocates principle of profit with purpose. Wanda Lopuch leads MDA Associates, Inc., which focuses on mitigating social risks in global operations and their supply chains. With 20 years of experience in telecommunication and pharmaceutical sectors, spanning across the United States, Europe, East Asia, and South America, Wanda guides international teams in maximizing performance. Prior to establishing MDA Associates Inc., Dr. Lopuch was the President of Medical Data Management Inc., the company she founded and grew into a multi-million dollar business with locations in 7 countries. Wanda’s passion for profit with purpose led her to the Global Sourcing Council, an organization which she co-founded in 2008, and since 2011 she leads as the Chair of the Board of Directors. She is an international lecturer of various aspects of global business.