Forum of biodivercities of Latin America

Sergio Díaz-Granados

Executive President, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-

Sergio Díaz-Granados has extensive experience in public and private service, both nationally and internationally, with special emphasis on regional development and integration issues. Before assuming the presidency of CAF, he served as Executive Director for Colombia at the Inter-American Development Bank. He previously held the positions of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Vice Minister of Business Development and President of the Boards of Directors of Bancóldex and ProColombia. He also has been a congressman and chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Colombia’s House of Representatives.

Jaime Pumarejo Heins

Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia

He is an information systems administrator from Purdue University, Indiana, United States. He has a master's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance, from the Madrid Business Institute, Spain. He was secretary of Economic Development of the Atlantic and general manager of the Puerta de Oro Caribbean Events Center, one of the largest infrastructure projects in the city. He has been Secretary of Mobility of Barranquilla and Manager of City Development, where he was in charge of projects of great impact, such as Siembra Barranquilla. In 2017 he was appointed Minister of Housing, City and Territory of Colombia and in 2019 he was elected as Mayor of Barranquilla.

Carlos Eduardo Correa

Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Colombia

He studied Business Administration at the EAFIT University, in Medellín, and did a master's degree in Marketing at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain. He has served as a consultant and speaker on different topics such as: sustainability, multipurpose cadastre, housing, leadership and public management. In the period 2012-2015 he was mayor of Montería, his hometown. In 2016 he was appointed Vice Minister of Drinking Water in the Housing portfolio, and later Presidential Councilor for the Regions. Since 2020 he has held the position of Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia.

Axel Grael

Prefect of Niteroi, Brazil

He is a forestry engineer, public manager and environmentalist. He began his activities as an activist with the creation of the Ecological Resistance Movement (MORE), a pioneer organization on the subject in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. He led initiatives in defense of Guanabara Bay and in the campaign that resulted in the creation of the Serra da Tiririca State Park. He was president of the State Forestry Institute and of the State Foundation for Environmental Engineering, as well as Undersecretary of the Environment of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Since 2013 he was Vice-prefect, Executive Secretary and Municipal Secretary of Planning of Niteroi, city of which he has been prefect since 2020.

Christian Asinelli

Corporate Vicepresident of Strategic Programming, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-

Christian Asinelli is a political scientist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), has a Master's degree in Public Administration and Policy from the Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) and postgraduate degrees in Urban Economics (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and in Sociourbana Management (FLACSO). In 2019, he received his Ph.D in Political Science from the National University of San Martín (Argentina).

During the last sixteen years he has been appointed in different roles in the public sector and the international arena: Alternate National Director of the State Modernization Project at the Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation (2005); Deputy of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (2007-2010); Undersecretary of Evaluation of Projects with External Financing of the Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation (2011-2014); Corporate Director of Institutional Development of CAF (2014-2017); President of the Fundación Banco Ciudad (2019) and Undersecretary of International Financial Relations for Development, Secretariat of Strategic Affairs, Presidency of the Nation. He was a Fellow of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program (2010), the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies-MIT (2011) and the Singularity University Executive Program (2017). He is the author of the books Buenos Aires: The city we have, the city we want (Buenos Aires, 2009); Modernization of the Argentine State: policies, management and professional scene (Buenos Aires, Edition, 2015) and Financing Development: The role of multilateral banking in Latin America (Buenos Aires, 2021).

Enrique Antía

Prefect of Maldonado, Uruguai

He graduated as an agronomist from the University of the Republic in 1974. Rural producer with extensive experience in the Uruguayan public service. He was departmental mayor of Maldonado and mayor of that department between 2000 and 2005. In his political career at national level, he was a senator of the Republic, deputy of the National Congress, member of the Honorable Board of Directors of the National Party and candidate for the aforementioned associative policies for the presidential elections of 2019. He was elected again (2015) and re-elected (2020) as Mayor of Maldonado, a position he will hold until 2025.

Eva Copa

Mayor of El Alto, Bolivia

She has a degree in Social Work from the Public University of El Alto, where she began her political career as a student center leader and later as General Secretary of the Local University Federation (FUL) of the city of El Alto. Recognized for her political activism in defense of the rights of youth and women from El Alto. In 2014, at just 28 years of age, she was elected to the post of senator by the Department of La Paz on behalf of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party. In 2019, she assumed the presidency of the Bolivian Chamber of Senators, which she served until 2020, the year in which she ran for and was elected as Mayor of El Alto.

Ivo Ferreira Gomes

Mayor of Sobral, Brazil

He has a degree in Law from the Federal University of Ceará, a specialist in Tax Law from the University of Fortaleza and a Master's degree from Harvard University in the United States. He began his political career in the municipality of Sobral, where he was Head of the Mayor's Office and Secretary of Education. In 2002, he was elected state deputy for the first time and reelected to the position in 2006, 2010 and 2014. In 2007 he assumed the chief of staff of the Government of Ceará, a position he held until 2012. He was also Municipal Secretary of Education and Secretary of State of Cities of Fortaleza. He is currently prefect of Sobral, a position for which he was reelected in 2020.

Jorge Muñoz

Mayor of Lima, Peru

He is a lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a Master in Territorial Planning and Environmental Management from the University of Barcelona. Trained in citizen security and local economic development, with specializations in management, direction, and administration of public and private institutions. He has been a member of the National Council for Competitiveness and Formalization (CNC) and president of the OMAPED National Network Coordinator. He was Municipal Director of the Miraflores District, where he served three times as municipal councilor and later on two occasions as District Mayor. Since January 2019 he has been the Metropolitan Mayor of Lima.

Leonardo Botto

Mayor of Luján, Argentina

He is a geographer from the Universidad del Salvador, with a Master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Universidad de San Andrés, focused his studies on a specialized program for Wildlife Recreation Management taught by the University of Montana, in the United States, and more He later completed a public service program at the Guile Foundation in Switzerland. He also completed an MBA at the IAE of the Austral University. He has actively participated in the tourism industry, he was National Director of Tourism Quality Management in the Secretariat of Tourism of Argentina, later he was director of the Institute for Tourism Promotion of the Nation and the Exportar Foundation. Since 2019 he is Mayor of Luján, city of the Province of Buenos Aires.

Luz María Zapata

Executive Director of Asocapitales

She is a political scientist from the Universidad de los Andes, where she also studied Negotiation, Management and Strategic Leadership. He has more than twenty years of work experience, during which he has stood out for his leadership, strengthening of management and union leadership. She has been coordinator of social and women's policies in the presidential campaign, researcher of the Organization of Ibero-American States - OEI, executive director of the Colombian Association of Liquor Companies - ACIL for 14 years, advisor of social and political affairs of the Good Government Foundation, and a candidate for the Bogotá Council on two occasions. She is currently Executive Director of the Colombian Association of Capital Cities (Asocapitales).

María Angélica Mejía

Leader of the "BiodiverCities for 2030" initiative of the Alexander Von Humboldt Institute

María is a Political Scientist and Economist from the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Following one of his personal passions, he made a Minor in Architecture and City. He holds a Master's in Global Environmental Change from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He has worked with the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of the Environment and the Humboldt Institute in Colombia; as well as with the Asian Development Bank, the German Development Cooperation and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change. Editor of the publication Urban Nature: Platform of Experiences (2016) and currently leads the Biodiverciudades initiative for 2030 at the Humboldt Institute.

María Emilsen Angulo Guevara

Mayor of Tumaco, Colombia

He is a professional in International Trade and Marketing, a specialist in Senior Management from the University of Nariño and an aspiring Master in strategic and prospective thinking at the Externado de Colombia University. In 2008 she became Secretary General of the Mayor of the District of Tumaco, to then be elected in 2015 as the first municipal authority, with the support of the Conservative, Liberal and Green parties. So far she is the only woman to assume that position and the first to repeat (in 2019, supported by the Conservative party) in the same decade.

Martín Llaryora

Mayor of the City of Córdoba, Argentina

He is a lawyer graduated from the National University of Córdoba and graduated from the Diploma in Public Management at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Córdoba. He held the position of Coordinator of Employment and Professional Training of the Government of the Province of Córdoba. He has been a councilor and mayor of the city of San Francisco, being reelected for the period 2011-2015. He held the position of Minister of Industry, Commerce, Mining and Scientific and Technological Development of the province of Córdoba. He has been Provincial Vice Governor, Deputy of the National Congress and Third Vice President of said Chamber. He is the authority of the Executive table of the local Justicialist Party and since 2019 Mayor of the City of Córdoba.

Mónica Santa Ramírez

Executive Director of ICLEI Colombia

She is a lawyer and specialist in Legal-Political Institutions and Public Law from the National University of Colombia, with a master's degree in Education and Human Development from the University of Manizales. He has held various positions and consultancies in the public sector, including the Personería de Medellín, the Institute for the Development of Antioquia and the Metropolitan Area of ​​Valle de Aburrá. She has also worked in the Judicial branch as a Procurator, and she served as academic coordinator of the School of Government and Public Policies of the University of Antioquia. She is currently the Executive Director of ICLEI Colombia.

Neyla Yadira Amú Venté

Mayor of Timbiquí, Colombia

She is a gerontologist from the Public University of Quindío and has a degree in foreign languages ​​from the Public University of Valle. He obtained scholarships to study at Georgetown University, in the United States, where he participated in a competitiveness program for Latin America, and to do a master's degree in Government and Public Policy at ICESI University, awarded by the Manos Visibles corporation, the IDB, the Ford Foundation and the Korean Poverty Reduction Fund. She was coordinator of the International Cooperation Office of the Cauca Government, and in 2020 she became the first elected mayor of the city of Timbiquí, a municipality in the Pacific region of Cauca.

Walter Vuoto

Prefect of Ushuaia, Argentina

From a family with a political tradition, he has had an extensive militancy since his youth. He was part of the armed forces of the political group La Cámpora in his city and in 2007 he was a candidate for councilor for the Compromiso K group, which represented the Kirchnerism sector in the provincial elections of Tierra del Fuego. Later he assumed the position of delegate in Tierra del Fuego of the National Youth Directorate. In 2011, he was elected councilor of the city of Ushuaia by the Frente Para la Victoria, a position he held until his assumption as Mayor in 2015, a responsibility that he will have until 2023 after being reelected in the 2019 elections.

Ximena Barrera Rey

Policy Director of WWF -World Wildlife Fund-

Economist from the Universidad Javeriana with a specialization in social evaluation of projects from the Universidad de los Andes. He worked in the National Planning Department in the development and strengthening of the National Environmental System. Under his leadership, during the last 21 years, WWF Colombia has influenced the development of innovative policies, environmental and sector strategies, and financing mechanisms, working in partnership with the government, companies, financial institutions, donors, and multilaterals. She is currently Director of Government Relations and International Affairs at WWF Colombia, coordinating WWF's policy work in the Latin American and Caribbean region and advocating for international negotiations on Biodiversity, Climate Change and the SDGs.