City Nation Place Latin America & Caribbean
3rd Annual Conference
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Lawyer from Universidad del Norte with experience in the field of commercial, civil, labor and mining law; training courses in Business Legal Advice and seminars in Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution. Her work and commitment to the development of the city of Barranquilla started in the District Mayor's Office where she served as an advisor to the Management of Special Projects, a position in which she supported the promotion of the city in different national and international scenarios.
Additionally, she has exercised her profession from different areas: Lawyer of the Mining Legal Division of Empresa Nacional Minera Ltda. - MINERCOL Ltda, Assistant to the President of the Chamber of Labor of the Superior Court of the District of Barranquilla, and Assistant Lawyer of the law firm Rodriguez, Rozo & Asociados.
Since September 2011 she has been part of ProBarranquilla, where she started as Investment Promotion Coordinator, promoting investment in the city and the state of Atlantico and supporting the installation and expansion processes of investors in the region. Ana Maria Badel is currently the executive director of ProBarranquilla.
Diane Edwards is the President of Jamaica’s Investment and export promotions agency, JAMPRO, where sheoversees national projects in the tourism, manufacturing, energy, mining, logistics, agriculture, creative industries and the knowledge services sectors and is instrumental in leading investment negotiations for Jamaica. A former Trade Commissioner for Jamaica in New York, Brussels and London, Diane is a respected thought-leader and strong advocate for the development and advancement of Jamaica’s business brand, and transformation of the nation’s business environment.
She has successfully managed and executed product launches for Jamaican food brands into mainstream markets, and negotiated substantial European Union funding for the ‘Target Europe’ Trade Development Programme; an initiative that positioned Jamaican products in the European market. This project subsequently evolved into a five-year Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP).She was also successful in landing investments in Jamaica for Spanishresort investors RIU and Iberostarand pivotal to the development of Jamaica’s garment sub-contracting and information and communications technology (ICT) industries.
Diane currently serves as the President of the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) and a member of the UK Institute of Directors, a Trustee for the British Foundation for the University of the West Indies.
Pedro is the former VP of Innovation and Intelligence in ProColombia. He leads the team in the generation of insights in the difficult time of the pandemic.
Before joining the team at ProColombia, Pedro was a consultant for the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank, supporting statistical projects throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, especially household surveys and population censuses.
He also was Deputy Director of the DANE, Colombia’s official Statistics Agency, where he specialized in the job market statistics, inflation rates, and demographics.
He has worked in market research for companies like ACNielsen, YanHaas, and Movistar (formerly Telecom) for the last 15 years. He is also a professor in Market research methods at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, one of Colombia’s leading Universities.
He knows a wide range of industries: telecommunications, food services, financial services, pharmaceutical companies, and public affairs.
Pedro is fully Bilingual. He has a Master in Marketing Intelligence, a degree in Business and a postgraduate degree in Political Marketing, and public opinion from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia
The Minister of Tourism of El Salvador is a professional with extensive experience in the direction of planning strategies, development and implementation of programs at the national level with governmental and private institutions. Specialist in the design, monitoring and evaluation of investment projects and international cooperation.
She recently served as the Country Brand National Director in the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of El Salvador PROESA.
She has dedicated part of her life to the in-depth study of marketing and advertising, but mainly oriented to exalt the image of El Salvador inside and outside the territory.
Jaime Miller took office as Executive Director of Uruguay XXI in April 2020.
He holds an MBA from IEEM, the business school of Universidad de Montevideo and is a CPA graduated from Universidad de la República.
Since 2003 he has developed a professional career in the Uruguayan company Zonamerica, the main business and technology park in Uruguay that has been operating under the Free Trade Zones Law since 1990. Miller was Director of Business Development and later General Manager, a position he held until 2018. After leading the process of installing Zonamerica in Cali, in 2018 he took over as CEO of Zonamerica Colombia until 2020.
Prior to that, he worked for six years at Price Waterhouse Coopers in the area of auditing and nine years in charge of a company that distributes imported products. He also has experience as an entrepreneur in the start-up of a domestic airline.
Bachelor in Tourism, specialist in Tourism Management for Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, specialized in Management of Creative Business and Creative Cities for the Universidad de Cordoba / Argentina, expert in Leisure Studies at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Recently obtained a Master degree in Creative Economy, Cultural Management and Development for Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. The subject chosen for the master thesis research was the development of creative tourism in small cities, which generated the Patchwork Methodology, a specific tool created for the management of projects connecting creative tourism, innovation and small cities territorial development. The Patchwork Methodoly won the 2017 Creative Tourism Awards as the best creative tourism development strategy. Member of the volunteer group of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), ambassador of the World Food Travel Association (WFTA) and collaborator of the International Institute of Gastronomy, Art, Culture and Tourism (IGCAT), Volunteer Member and founder of Frente da Gastronomia Mineira (FGM) – Minas Gerais Gastronomy Group, involving public institutions, private sector, third sector organizations, researchers and professionals.
When Katie was at university, she was asked – multiple times – what you can actually do with a degree in English. As it turns out, the answer is Head of Content at City Nation Place. Katie joined the team in 2018 as an Events Manager, helping Clare Dewhirst to research and create the conference agendas for both the City Nation Place conferences and a range of client events. As City Nation Place has grown, her role has expanded to include writing articles for the City Nation Place website, interviewing leading place brand practitioners, and curating the online content. Katie has developed a keen interest in all things place branding, and is looking forward to helping City Nation Place to continue to grow and develop in the future.
Hugo Fco. Rivera Fernandez was born in the City of Santo Domingo. He graduated from APEC University and has a Law Degree. He has worked in different newspapers and magazines; Business Today, facilitator for Hoy newspaper, Business Editor for the business newspaper MerKdos for Puerto Rico and columnist for Entrepreneurs magazine.
He has been professor of Commercial Law, Comparative Law, International Public Law, International treaties and Economic Policy of the Universities UASD, UNIBE, PUCAMAIMA, APEC and the OMG.
Work Experience:
Mr. Rivera is currently the Ambassador, Vice Minister of Foreign Relations for Economic Affairs and International Cooperation for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic.
In his state functions, he was the national coordinator and chief negotiator of the Free Trade Area of the Americas and coordinator of the implementation of the CARICOM and CENTROAMERICA agreements (2002-2004).
National Coordinator of the Training Plan on Foreign Trade. (2000-2004). Coordinator of the Dominican delegation on the Council for Trade and Investment of the Dominican Republic and the United States of America (2002-2004).
Director of the technical teams of the Special Office for DR-CAFTA negotiations.
Private sector:
Technical Coordinator of the Business Coalition to Support the Free Trade Agreement with the United States DR-CAFTA (2004-2006); international trade advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce AMCHAM of the Association of Free Zones Industries (2005-2006), consultant to the industry association of the Dominican Republic AIRD.
Advisor to: ASE-CAFTA Team and BHD Bank (2005-2009).
Consultant to: the United States Agency for International Development, Team USAID through the Chemonics program, and the Canadian-Dominican Chamber for matters related to Trade with Canada.
Advisor in International Trade to the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Department of Economic Development and Commerce (2007-2009).
Advisor to the Corripio Business Group and advisor to multinational companies including Procter and Gamble and PepsiCo International.
Ingrid is public relations specialist who has led integrated communications plans in effort to create brand awareness for various travel, CPG and consumer lifestyle accounts including Discover Puerto Rico, the Department of Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico, Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, Royal Caribbean International, General Motors, Heineken and more. Additionally, she has been heavily involved in crisis management handling natural disasters including Hurricane Maria, seismic activities in Puerto Rico and COVID-19. She is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico and is fluent in Spanish.
Senator Claudia Ruiz Massieu is a Mexican lawyer and politician who served as as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2017, Previously she was the Minister of Tourism, also under President Enrique Peña Nieto. During her time as cabinet member, Ruiz Massieu developed comprehensive soft power strategies to promote Mexico as a world-class destination for tourism and investment.
In the Mexican Senate, she is Chair of the Special Committee on USMCA implementation, as well as member of the committees on foreign affairs and North America.
Known for her forward-thinking, innovative leadership and fierce enthusiasm, Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes proudly serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.), expertly leading Aruba’s destination marketing, business development, and partnerships while effectively collaborating with the Aruban government and the country’s private sector. She invests heavily in the A.T.A. team that have helped position Aruba where it is today within the global tourism industry. The economic impact of tourism over the past nine years was phenomenal, with an annual average growth of 5% in the expenditure of international visitors and a solid growth in visitor arrivals of on average 4% per year.
Well aware that Aruba is not immune to the ever-changing world and its increasingly complex environment, Ronella accepts the challenge to rebuild the Aruba tourism industry and to continue to evolve as a leader and inspire her fellow countrymen and women to evolve as well, placing great emphasis on building strong character, which she believes forms the bedrock of a resilient nation equipped to continue driving its tourism market upward.
Ronella currently serves as a member of the Board of the Stichting Beheer Centro Oranjestad, and as a member of the RBC Royal Bank Aruba N.V. Board of Supervisory Directors. She is also a member of Aruba’s national crisis team and served as a member of the Covid-19 steering committee recently, helping guide the Economic Recovery trajectory through the establishment of a National Master Plan. As CEO of the A.T.A., Ronella also guides the Tourism Recovery Marketing trajectory. All platforms are critical to managing the current Covid-19 crisis as well as the recovery trajectory.
Ronella serves and has served on numerous other committees, boards, and platforms in Bonaire and Aruba.
Bloom Consulting CEO
Since 2003 Mr. Torres has been advising Countries in the field of Nation Branding and City Branding, working directly with heads of state, directors of National Tourism Organizations and Investment Promotion Agencies.
His clients include Countries, Regions and Cities such as Australia, Costa Rica, Israel, Jamaica, Poland, Sweden, Stockholm and many others spread across all five continents.
Mr. Torres collaborates directly with the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding and is a guest speaker in some of the most prestigious universities in USA and Europe, such as HARVARD, the London Business School, Stockholm School of Economics and many others, being interviewed by The Economist, BBC, Guardian and CNN.
Since 2011 his company performs a global research project called the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking and most recently the Digital Country Index and the Digital City Index
Bettina Garibaldi is the Managing Director of Ketchum’s Travel, Hospitality & Leisure sector. She brings years of experience leading integrated marketing communications campaigns and is an expert at building and elevating travel, hospitality and leisure brands through corporate communications, media relations, consumer engagement, and strategic partnerships and events. She has a Masters from NYU in corporate communications and has received numerous best-in-class awards for campaigns she’s spearheaded — including Ketchum’s most awarded PR-led campaign for one of her destination clients. She’s originally from Argentina and fluent in Spanish. Bettina is a PRWeek 40 Under 40 2020 recipient and a 2021 HSMAI Top 25 most extraordinary marketing leader recipient. Her motto is: Collect moments, not things.
Tourism industry visionary David Peacock is the Senior Advisor to the Future Tourism Group @ Simpleview, the global leader in software and services for digital destination marketing.
Peacock followed up two decades of international success as a senior executive in television and electronic media by accepting a challenge to spearhead the creation of a ground breaking tourism development incubator (RTO4.ca) in Ontario, Canada in 2011. He joined Simpleview in January 2020. He has track record in growing and strengthening tourism economies, as well as working with Destinations International and DestinationNEXT,
Peacock describes the Future Tourism Group as a vehicle for industry leaders to prioritize issues and participate in creating and beta-testing tools and processes to address them, with much of the work mirroring strategies he successfully developed for creating sustainable destination management networks, developing channels for distributed marketing and storytelling and strengthening stakeholder competencies.
Bloom Consulting CEO
Since 2003 Mr. Torres has been advising Countries in the field of Nation Branding and City Branding, working directly with heads of state, directors of National Tourism Organizations and Investment Promotion Agencies.
His clients include Countries, Regions and Cities such as Australia, Costa Rica, Israel, Jamaica, Poland, Sweden, Stockholm and many others spread across all five continents.
Mr. Torres collaborates directly with the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding and is a guest speaker in some of the most prestigious universities in USA and Europe, such as HARVARD, the London Business School, Stockholm School of Economics and many others, being interviewed by The Economist, BBC, Guardian and CNN.
Since 2011 his company performs a global research project called the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking and most recently the Digital Country Index and the Digital City Index