Álvaro Uribe, who served as President of the Republic of Colombia from 2002 to 2010, was born in Medellin, capital of the department of Antioquia on July 4th, 1952. He is married to Lina Uribe. They have two sons: Tomás and Jerónimo.
Uribe holds a degree in law from the Universidad de Antioquia and a post-graduate degree in Management and Administration from Harvard University. From 1998 to 1999 after being awarded the Simon Bolivar fellowship by the British Council in Bogotá, he worked as an associate professor at Oxford University.
Uribe entered public service at a very young age. In 1976 he became head of the Real Estate Office of the Public Works Department of Medellín.
From 1977 to 1978 he was Secretary General of the Labor Ministry and from 1980 to 1982, head of the Civil Aviation Department. Uribe was the mayor of his native city of Medellín in 1982 and later, from 1984 to 1986, he was elected city councillor.
Uribe was elected governor of the department of Antioquia for the 1995-1997 period, during which time he developed a model of community participation in key government decisions such as the creation of new jobs, education, public procurement and security, which he called Community State.
Uribe was elected Senator for the periods 1986-1990 and 1990-1994, terms during which he received the Star Senator, Senator with the Best Programs and Best Senator awards.
He was elected President in 2002, and while in office enjoyed unprecedented support of around 70%. Uribe has been credited with making great strides against the drug cartels and armed guerilla groups. During his presidency, Uribe transformed Colombia from an embattled state to a much more secure country that is thriving today.
Vishal Ahluwalia is the Executive Director – WMA Operations and Head Sourcing/Outsourcing at UBS Wealth Management Americas. He is an accomplished leader in conceptualization and implementation of global sourcing strategies, development of delivery organizations and integration of corporate cultures that impacts enterprise profitability. A change agent and catalyst to deploy ‘right sourcing’ strategies resulting in best-in-class service and superior cost-arbitrage. Ahluwalia was previously Director of Global Sourcing at Credit Suisse and Director – Head of Global Sourcing at Unysis.
Adriaan Bouten is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at The McGraw-Hill Companies, where he oversees all technology, business process management, and digital transformation efforts for J.D. Power & Associates, McGraw-Hill Construction, Platts, and Aviation Week Group, which comprise the billion-dollar Commodities and Commercial Markets business (formerly called Information & Media Segment) of this global information organization. Through his leadership of Lean Six Sigma initiatives, digital-product design, and technology-platform development, he has played a key role in growing revenues and operating income.
During his time with McGraw-Hill, Mr. Bouten has improved digital business revenues and improved the time to market for new products. Through outsourcing, he has delivered millions of dollars in cost savings in the areas of technology development and maintenance. He has also contributed to innovation and productivity by introducing cloud computing and digital transformation technologies to the organization.
Prior to joining The McGraw-Hill Companies, Mr. Bouten was Vice President of Technology & Business Development at USAToday.com, where he led the development of several new technologies to stimulate revenue growth and implemented a successful R&D group. His work led to the turnaround of a previously unprofitable business unit, a doubling of license revenues, and dramatically improved customer satisfaction.
As Vice President of Information Technology & Internet Publishing and, later, President of the eMedia Division at Hanley-Wood, Mr. Bouten directed technology and business operations for a $200M publishing firm. His achievements there include major revenue increases and operational improvements.
Prior to this, Mr. Bouten held executive roles in technology with Congressional Quarterly and Bon Secours Health Systems, and held various staff and management positions with Ernst & Young.
Adriaan Bouten holds a master’s degree in accounting from Georgetown University, is a graduate of Gartner’s CIO Academy, and is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Data Processor. He is a board member of the Online Publishers Association, where he chairs the technology committee. He lives in New Jersey.
Alex Camino is VP of Marketing & Communications at Softtek. With more than 20 years of experience working for IT solution providers, Camino has led Marketing and Communications for Softtek, managing corporate communications across the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia, since 2006. He has authored several white papers around the topics of outsourcing, nearshoring, Mexico, and Total Cost of Engagement, which have contributed to positioning nearshore as an industry not defined by labor arbitrage. He has been a panelist and organizer of various industry conferences.
Joanne Bifalco Diehl, President ThinkBRQ, the US operation of BRQ, developed a career dedicated to sales, recruitment and management of technology consulting services and developing international recruitment programs, specifically from Brazil. She co-founded ThinkInternational in 1999, and prior to that Bifalco Diehl served as Vice President for Lexstra International (acquired by MSXI) from 1993 to 1999 and as Marketing Representative and Recruiter for Starlex Systems from 1987 to 1993.
Focused on adding value to the client’s operations, ThinkBRQ provides a large range of IT services from application management services to IT consulting and staffing/recruiting solutions, offering a flexible on/near shore model utilizing Brazil. ThinkBRQ’s Financial Markets practice has extensive domain expertise with functions including exchange trading systems.
Luke Bujarski is Senior Research Analyst for Nearshore Americas. Based in New York City Luke has over ten years of market research and international business experience. His most recent reports take a hard-line look at Brazil’s economic boom and what it means for IT, Latin America as a platform for knowledge-intensive services, and Mexico’s university system as an enabler of IT innovation. Luke has interviewed two Latin American Presidents and presented at the AGExport Global Services Summit in Guatemala City, the SSON Shared Services Summit in Panamá, and has sat on and moderated numerous expert panels.
Luke speaks fluent Spanish, Polish, and has a good command of Portuguese. In his former life Luke was a consultant in strategic sourcing at Intersources. Prior to joining Nearshore Americas, Luke headed up Regional Intel, a custom research consultancy based out of Chicago, Illinois. He has a bachelor’s in Spanish Linguistics and International Affairs, and later went on to obtain his Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated with honors.
Francisco Fernandes joined Stefanini in 2011 as a Director of Business Development and designated to large accounts, mainly in New York and Florida. Fernandes brings over 27 years of experience in the IT business, servicing premium clients in multiple market segments and has held executive positions at global IT services companies such as Accenture, IBM and Microsoft. He has an extensive knowledge of Financial Services and Telecommunications industries as well as on developing and delivering offshore outsourcing solutions. Fernandes holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from Escola Politecnica -Universidade de Sao Paulo and MBA on Finance from IBMEC-Brazil.
Luke speaks fluent Spanish, Polish, and has a good command of Portuguese. In his former life Luke was a consultant in strategic sourcing at Intersources. Prior to joining Nearshore Americas, Luke headed up Regional Intel, a custom research consultancy based out of Chicago, Illinois. He has a bachelor’s in Spanish Linguistics and International Affairs, and later went on to obtain his Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated with honors.
Simon Gauthier, General Manager and Chief Information Officer, Department of Information Technology, at the Inter-American Development Bank has been with the IDB since July 2007. In this capacity, he leads the Bank’s centralized IT activities structured around the Information Technology Architecture Division, the Information Technology Infrastructure Division and the Information Technology Global Services Unit. Prior to that, Mr. Gauthier served as Manager for Information Technology and General Services, from May 2005 onwards.
Prior to his post at the IDB, Gauthier served as Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the Government of Canada from May 2003 to May 2005. In this role, he provided leadership and help in the coordination of programs and activities relevant to Information Management and Information Technology (IM/IT) in support of the Canadian Government objectives in delivering services to citizens, business and internationally. The Chief Information Officer Branch also focused on the renewal of the Information and Technology (IT) professional community. As Deputy Chief Information Officer, Gauthier was called upon to assist the Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada in delivering CIOB IT community’s mandate.
Ann R. Harts is Principal of Hickey & Associates, LLC and was included on Nearshore America’s “Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Executives,” which described Harts as “a thorough and reliable advisor whose site selection and negotiating expertise make her one of the region’s most knowledgeable partners in evaluating potential relationships. Harts is savvy, aggressive, gets things done and gets answers for her clients.” As Principal of Hickey & Associates, Harts blends experience in real estate, finance and community economic development, and is fluent in domestic and international site selection, public incentive advisory, and real estate transaction management. She has spearheaded the workplace activities for a $2billion annual revenue company with a global portfolio of 150+ locations.
Harts provides strategy and services on corporate site selection and public incentive advisory to global companies, as well as Community Screening Studies for M&A transactions. She has recently completed projects in Brazil, Honduras, United States and China. During her tenure as Corporate Real Estate Director with a global contact center company with over 150 locations in 30+ countries, she managed over 200 site location studies globally and over 40 transactions in seven countries while leading internal real estate processes.
Harts is a contributing writer and expert for several publications to include most recently Nearshore Americas, who named her to the “Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Executives.” She is an award-winning speaker on site location and economic development, having received CoreNet’s Luminary Award and was the keynote speaker at Nicaragua’s recent foreign investment conference. She has also been featured in podcast discussions on Latin America.
A native of Manhattan, KS, Harts is a product of Kansas State University and the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma; a licensed real estate broker and former licensed appraiser. Active and prior memberships in numerous professional organizations include Industrial Asset Management Council; CoreNet Global; Nearshore Executive Alliance (Founding Member); International Economic Development Council; Southern Economic Development Council (received numerous awards for both IEDC and SEDC).
Esteban Herrera is an outsourcing thought leader who is passionate about the opportunities of globalization and specialization in the industry. A recognized speaker and author, he advises organizations on issues of business process and IT outsourcing on- and offshore. He has leveraged a deep understanding of business strategy to help clients align their sourcing initiatives with their vision. Through his involvement in hundreds of enterprise-size outsourcing initiatives, he has developed unique insight and the ability to ask the right questions to set an organization on the correct outsourcing path.
Herrera has worked with Global 2000 companies in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe, helping them manage the entire lifecycle of back office transformations.
Herrera brings deep international experience to his clients, having lived and worked in four continents. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Herrera’s work has appeared in publications such as MWorld and Directorship. He is a co-author of the influential book Outsourcing: The Definitive Point of View, Applications and Implications published by Wiley & Sons in 2006. In 2003 he led the landmark Research “Life After Outsourcing“, which was the first to comprehensively focus on the behaviors and processes that can make or break outsourcing success. He sits on the board of Psyque, a privately held international healthcare provider.
Prior to joining HfS Research, Herrera was a Managing Director at Alsbridge, founder and President of NovaSphere Group, and an Executive Vice President at The Concours Group, where he led both the Sourcing Advisory Services and Global Shared Services practices. He has also held executive positions with both Infosys and Accenture, where he managed large global delivery P&Ls. Herrera obtained his degree in Entrepreneurial Studies from Administration Babson College in Massachusetts.
Eric Hochstein, Managing Director of Highstone Associates, Inc., advises companies, organizations and governments around the world on sourcing and location strategies, international business and economic development strategies and tactics, marketing and corporate strategy, and new product development and market entry.
Hochstein offers insights and delivers solutions based on more than 25 years of global experience in leadership positions with technology, software, and telecommunications companies, as a management consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and as a legislative assistant to members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
As a management consultant, he has helped companies create new strategies for customer relationship management and interactive commerce, develop innovative new telecommunications products and services, enter new markets, and organize for greater efficiency and effectiveness. He has helped to create mutually beneficial strategic alliances, business partnerships, and commercial relationships which have led to increased revenues, new product offerings, and faster market entry and growth. He has created social media campaigns and direct marketing initiatives.
From 2003-2010, Mr. Hochstein advised Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade on business investment attraction strategy in the United States and represented the province in the Midwest. During that time, one of his areas of concentration was outsourcing, customer contact centers, and shared services.
Mr. Hochstein’s corporate experience includes positions in marketing, strategy and business development with BroadVision, Inc., a leading web platform and economic commerce developer, Rockwell International, where he was Director of Marketing and Strategy for the company’s Contact Center technology organization, and Nortel Networks, where he managed strategy and business development for the operator services business unit. He also worked in product and business development positions for Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and Ameritech (now ATT).
He has been a member of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), the American Teleservices Association (ATA), and other industry associations. He participates in the Sourcing Interests Group and programs of the Outsourcing Institute, where he has spoken regularly international outsourcing strategies, and particularly about nearshoring.
He has an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from Georgetown University and a BA in Government from Oberlin College.
Keith Jones is Senior Associate at Pace Harmon and former Fortune 100 Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) with 20+ years of supply chain, service operations and consulting experience delivering results that meet client/stakeholder needs, reduce costs, grow revenue and improve productivity. Jones specializes in key areas such as Procurement and Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Relationship and Performance Management, Business Process Optimization and Outsourcing, Shared Services Organization Design and Implementation, Sourcing Governance and Risk Management.
Mark Klender, based in San Francisco, is the Americas Cooperative leader and Global Deployment Strategy lead for Deloitte’s Service Delivery Transformation practice, addressing global service delivery strategy, global location strategy, and implementation/transition management. Klender has more than 25 years of experience spanning shared service delivery, cost management, location strategy, economic development incentives, and corporate real estate.
Klender has written and spoken extensively on shared service delivery, location strategy, economic competitiveness, and cost management. He has authored numerous studies and point of views, his most recent works addressing transitioning into shared services operations, the viability of offshoring, and a portfolio approach for shared services delivery balancing shared services, outsourcing, and offshoring. He is one of the lead authors for Deloitte’s biennial global shared services study. Mark co-authored a study for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group evaluating the global competitiveness of Silicon Valley, under corporate life cycle and value chain frameworks.
Representative Clients
Allstate, Amgen, Avery Dennison, AT&T, Brown Shoe, Chevron, CVS, eBay, First American Title, First Data, The Gap, Genentech, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Ingram Micro, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft, Mattel, Mercury Interactive, Motorola, NCR, Neiman Marcus, Nestle, Nordstrom, PacifiCare, Pillsbury Winthrop, Pfizer, SC Johnson, Sprint/Nextel, Sysco, Sun Microsystems, SunPower, UBS, Wal-Mart, Warner Bros, Webvan, Wells Fargo, and Wilmer Hale.
He holds a B.A. in Economics (Public Finance) from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kirk Laughlin is an award-winning editor and subject expert in information technology and offshore BPO/ IT business strategies and shared services. He is founder of the popular online media brand “Nearshore Americas” which examines the powerful emergence of Latin America-driven outsourcing services. He has emerged as one of the foremost thought-leaders on the expansion of cross-border trade and investment in business services exports in the Western Hemisphere.
Laughlin and his team launched three specially-targeted web brands during the last year: Global Delivery Report, Sourcing Brazil, and BPO Outcomes. Laughlin speaks frequently at conferences throughout the Americas. Earlier, Kirk was a Vice President and Managing Director at Ziff Davis Media, based in New York City.
Stan Lepeak is Global lead of research in KPMG’s Management Consulting service line, focused on trends, issues and futures in the global delivery of core business and IT services and on extended enterprise service delivery models such as shared services, outsourcing and cloud.
25 years experience in the business and IT services markets. Previously served with the META Group as VP and Research Lead for buy and sell side business and IT services. Additional roles on the vendor and provider side in software and services industries as well as positions in finance, accounting and operations across several industries.
Noted commentator and frequent speaker on business and IT services, business process outsourcing and transformation, globalization and global sourcing, organizational change, risk management, compliance, and underlying supporting technologies.
Ashish Malhotra is an accomplished executive with exceptional skills in process orientation and global sourcing. Strong and effective catalyst for change with a deep rooted understanding of the human factor in services organizations. Unique “seen it from both sides” IT outsourcing experience: as a buyer for seven years, and a seller for the same amount of time.
Malhotra joined Citi Institutional Client Group (ICG) in May 2007 as a Global Resource Strategy relationship manager to one of the larger lines of businesses. Currently, he is the Enterprise Program Manager for an ambitious Citi-wide Global Technology Resource Strategy with a focus to drive significant savings and to mature the sourcing experience for Citi Technology. In this capacity, he is responsible for enablement and governance activities of the program, in addition to overall PMO.
Prior to Citi and since 1999, Malhotra was at Kale Consultants, an India-based niche IT Solutions company catering to Airlines & Travel sectors, as CEO of the US entity and President of the Parent company based in India. Under his leadership, the company recorded 850% growth [CAGR 43%] from six customer and 75 FTEs to over 60 customers and 750 FTEs despite the industry’s condition.
Malhotra has an MBA in Finance & Marketing and BS in Information Technology & Economics, both degrees from Stern School of Business, New York University.
Leonardo Mattiazzi is vice president of International Business at Ci&T. With Ci&T since 1997, Mattiazzi has spearheaded several of the company’s critical business units, including Professional Services, Sales, Marketing and Software Products. Two of his standout achievements were the launch of Sensedia, a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)-focused organization, and the creation of Ci&T’s Interactive Services practice. Mattiazzi has been an active proponent and driver of the Ci&T’s transformation into a Lean organization. He has become a prominent industry thought leader on the topic of Lean as both an application development principle and a cultural organizational tenet. He has helped to facilitate and grow the company’s emphasis on high-performance teams, whose talent, shared purpose and commitment to skills mastery promote continuous innovation and generate high quality results for Ci&T’s clients. Mattiazzi holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from UNICAMP and an Executive MBA from Fox Business School, Philadelphia.
(Photo credit: Temple University, Joseph V. Labolito)
Robert McNeill is a Research Vice President focused on Cloud business services, IT management and effective sourcing strategies for end-user organizations and service providers.
McNeill’s main focus at HfS is delivering research, thought-leadership, practical advice, and imparting real-world Cloud services experience to buy-side clients and service providers on what really matters – how to execute Cloud business strategy in a manner that creates real business value. McNeill will examine the industry dynamics driving business utility solutions, as the boundaries between Cloud Computing, Business Process Outsourcing and IT infrastructure services continue to blur.
Prior to HfS, McNeill was VP Research/Consulting for Saugatuck Technology, VP Strategy/ Marketing for SaaS vendor Service-now.com, a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting advising organizations across North America on IT and business process sourcing strategies and a Principal Analyst with Forrester Research. He is a contributing author of a book produced by the Institute of Directors in the UK on software asset management.
McNeill holds a master’s degree in European business and a bachelor’s degree in business studies from Cass Business School, City University, UK. A native of Scotland, Robert has lived and worked in both Europe and North America.
Fabrizio Opertti is Chief of the Trade and Investment Unit of the Integration and Trade Sector at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he supervises an operational team in charge of a large portfolio of international trade and foreign direct investment promotion projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). He also directs the IDB’s initiatives in the services globalization sector, having led the preparation of services’ offshoring promotion strategies in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Colombia, as well as the first LAC Offshoring and Outsourcing Promotion Summit (Outsource2LAC, Montevideo, 2011). Fabrizio also leads the organization of the IDB’s pan-regional trade events, including the upcoming 2012 CEO Summit of the Americas, the 2011 Korea-LAC Business Summit (Seoul), the 2010 China LAC Business Summit (Chengdu), the 2008 ASIA LAC Forum 2008 (Tokyo), the 2007 Korea-LAC Forum (Seoul), and the 2009 and 2011 International Business Meetings in Haiti, in collaboration with the Clinton Global Initiative. He also coordinates IDB’s support to the Latin American Network of Trade Promotion Agencies.
Fabrizio has a MBA from Johns Hopkins School of Business, a Master in Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Bachelor of Arts in International Political Economy from American University.
fabrizioo@iadb.org
Alfredo Pacheco, CEO, MexicoIT, has more than 15 years of professional experience in the IT sector. Prior to MexicoIT, Pacheco was COO at CANIETI, the private sector organism that represents the interests of the Mexican High Tech Industry. He was also Chief of Staff at the Underministry of Industry and Trade of the Economics Ministry, Mexican Federal Government and Head of Economic Planning at the IRS of the Finance Ministry, Mexican Federal Government. Pacheco’s expertise includes technology, operations, negotiations, planning, small and medium business, statistical models and quality systems. Pacheco graduated in the top 10% of his class and has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, from Tecnologico de Monterrey.
Kevin Parikh is the CEO and Partner of Avasant. Mr. Parikh specializes in IT and business process (BP) outsourcing contract and service-level negotiations, strategic management, business risk evaluation and software licensing. His practice engages in both Nearshore and offshore sourcing solutions. Mr. Parikh is based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to joining Avasant, Mr. Parikh was a Vice President with Gartner Consulting.
Over his career, Mr. Parikh has been involved in more than 300 outsourcing deals. These transactions have ranged from US$20 million to US$2.5 billion, involving major Tier 1 and Tier 2 service providers (for example, IBM, EDS, ACS, Wipro, Infosys, Unisys and CGI).
Umesh Patel is Global Head of Finance Shared Services (Financial Reporting Operations) at Citi since May 2006. Financial Reporting Operations’ mission is to deliver customer focused, cost effective and quality shared services in support of Citi’s Finance community and the financial close process globally.
Prior to this Patel was instrumental in maturing the shared services model as the Citi Shared Services Head for Asia Pacific Region with responsibilities for Procurement, General Services, Accounts Payable and Financial Reporting Operations for the region. He also founded the Regional Financial Center in Manila, Philippines and established it as a Global Processing Center. Patel was also CFO for Citi’s Global Finance business in Switzerland where he managed business and financial control support for the group involving Fixed Income, Treasury, Derivatives and Transaction Banking products. Patel started with the Finance Division at Citi in New York.
Mark Peacock is chief information officer of Pegasus Solutions, the global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors. In this role, Mark is responsible for the architecture, design, development, implementation, and delivery of Pegasus’ technology solutions. He most recently led the development and successful launch of Pegasus’ new RezView Mobile and Internet Booking Engine (IBE) products.
Mark has over 20 years of experience helping companies drive efficiency and innovation in information technology (IT) products and services. Prior to Pegasus, he ran the IT Effectiveness practice at Archstone Consulting, a strategy and operations consulting firm he helped found in 2003. Before Archstone, Mark was a Partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he helped create and run the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Practice. He also created and led Roundarch, a joint venture between Deloitte and WPP Group, established to deliver complete e-business solutions.
Mark began his career with ROLM Corporation, an industry leader in call center technology, holding finance and operational positions. He also held product marketing positions with FMC Corporation’s specialty chemical group.
Mark received a master of business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor of chemical engineering from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Sergio Pessoa, Director of Global Market Development, Brasscom, with a focus on promoting and developing global business opportunities for the Brazilian IT-BPO sector.
Pessoa has been a global executive and leader of consulting practices and Fortune 500 organizations, has deep practical experience in strategic planning, sales and delivery of large-scale, mission-critical programs across the globe, and a well-established track record in creating high performance IT organizations in the US, Europe, and Brazil.
Before joining Brasscom, Pessoa served as a Director of Product Development at Motorola, where he led the development of next-generation public safety applications. Prior to Motorola he was the VP of Strategic Accounts at Shields Enterprise International – SEI, where he led the delivery of managed services solutions to McDonald’s in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to SEI he was a Principal and Branch Delivery Manager at Daugherty Business Solutions, where he directed the IT Management Consulting and e-Business practices. Prior to Daugherty, Mr. Pessoa held management positions at Andersen Consulting in Brazil and in the U.S.
Pessoa is the Chair of the Latin America Regional Advisory Board for IAOP – the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals and a member of the Investment and Trade Committee at the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York.
Pessoa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from UNICAMP-Brazil and an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in Strategic Management and Marketing.
Ankur Prakash is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for TCS Latin American Operations.
He is responsible for Sales and Operations for the entire TCS LATAM region looking after eight Countries, 8000+ Associates and 125+ LatAm and Global customers.
Prakash was born in India, and has more than 15 years of experience in TCS and has served in countries like Mexico, India, USA, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Latin America in different areas such as IT, Business management and development, Process management, Client relation management.
Prakash is a graduate from Indian Institute of Technology as an Engineer and has done General Management Program from Harvard Business School and Management and Leadership Program from Sloan School of Management.
Jason Rodriguez is the CTO of Noodle. Rodriguez’s career path took him from being director of Technology at The Princeton Review to CTO of Beliefnet, where he built a site that serves more than four million unique users and sends out more than half a billion emails to 20 million subscribers every month. Rodriguez also recently became an Ironman since completing Ironman Lake Placid 2011.
Rafael Romo is Senior Latin American Affairs Editor of CNN Worldwide and is responsible for tracking the top stories across Latin America for the global audiences of CNN across its multiple platforms.
A native of Mexico, Romo is an Emmy-award winning, Spanish-English journalist with 20 years of experience as an anchor, correspondent, manager of news coverage and journalism professor. Prior to CNN Romo he worked for CBS as general assignment reporter and as correspondent and anchor for Univision in Chicago.
Romo has interviewed leaders such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Vicente Fox and has covered natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in Central America. Romo witnessed the last two visits of Pope John Paul II to Mexico and reported from within the community of San Salvador Atenco in the middle of an angry, machete-wielding mob fighting a government’s decision to build an airport.
Romo has a bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting from Arizona State University and was recently inducted to the Alumni Hall of Fame at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Steve Rudderham is Global Transition & Delivery Excellence Leader – Capgemini BPO. He has over 15 years of global business experience across BPO, Insurance and Lighting. He has a broad operational background having led teams on the ground in Europe, USA, Latin America and India. His current role is leading the Global Transitions and Delivery Excellence teams for Capgemini, with additional responsibility for their six onshore delivery centers.
Prior to joining Capgemini, Rudderham was the Business Leader for Genpact’s Latin America operations where he led an organization of over 3,000 associates. He oversaw processes including F&A, data entry, collections and document management, with operations in Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil. He previously led an Insurance CoE for Genpact and was based at their operations in Delhi, India for three years. The operations included F&A, Collections, Treasury, Actuarial, Underwriting and Risk Modeling. Before Genpact, Rudderham spent almost 10 years with GE in various operational and six sigma roles in GE Insurance in the US, and GE Lighting across Europe.
Rudderham is a board member of IAOP Latin America and the Nearshore Executive Alliance, and also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
David Shpilberg was ranked number 1 on Nearshore Americas’ “Top 50 Power Ranking of Most Influential Executives” in 2011. Shpilberg, together with Jair Ribeiro and Rogerio Brecha, founded CPM Braxis in Brazil six years ago. Before CPM Braxis, he was the head of Bain & Company’s Information Technology strategy practice worldwide. Prior to joining Bain, Shpilberg held senior management positions in companies including: Knight Capital, Ernst & Young, Goldman, Sachs, Coopers & Lybrand and Sinergica. He started his professional career as a Professor of Decision Sciences at IESA and latter the Wharton School of Business. His work in Artificial Intelligence and IT Strategy are the subject of several articles, academic publications and two cases developed by the Harvard Business School. He received his BS, MS and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shpilberg’s career reached an important milestone when he helped engineer the tie-up of CPMBraxis and Capgemini in 2010. His professionalism, industry depth and outspoken advocacy of the region’s unique advantages make him a sterling example of how far Americas-driven outsourcing has come.
Rodrigo Slelatt is a Principal at A.T. Kearney, Inc. in New York; he focuses on multi-function transformations with focus on Shared Services, Offshoring and Business Process Outsourcing. He has worked closely with multinationals and service providers in the United States, Latin America and Asia, and has also helped Latin American governments in their efforts to grow the industry and attract investment. Rodrigo also focuses in large Pre and Post-Merger Integration programs.
Slelatt is the co-author of a number of business papers on the topic of outsourcing, including: “Execution is Everything: The Keys to Offshore Success”; “Destination Latin America: A Near-shore Alternative”; and “Procurement Outsourcing: Navigating the Risks to Rip the Rewards”, and “Outsourcing in Latin America: Are We There Yet?” He holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Juan A. Vargas, Head of the Business Intelligence Unit, ProMexico, is a competitive intelligence, strategy and Information technology (IT) specialist. Vargas has over 20 years of experience as an IT consultant working as a systems engineer, project manager and practice director for companies such as Softtek, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Siebel Systems. He has also a sound management consulting experience working as lead consultant, senior associate and principal for companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte and Oliver Wyman. Vargas joined the public service in June 2009 as Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and since March of 2011, he is the Head of the Business Intelligence Unit of ProMexico, the Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Promotion agency of the Mexican government. He holds a Bachelor in Science in Management Information Systems at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and studies in Master in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Texas at Austin.
Atul Vashistha is the Founder & Chairman, neoIT Founder & Chairman, NEOGROUP Vashistha is a leading proponent and practitioner of globalization and futurizing enterprises. He brings almost two decades of global business expertise to neoIT and NEOGROUP. Atul co-founded neoIT in 1999 with the mission of helping enterprises grow their business and improve operations by capitalizing on services globalization. This passion for globalization of services and a unique business model has helped neoIT establish itself as the leader in the services globalization advisory and management arena. This has also led to Vashistha being recognized globally for his thought leadership and experience is the global services economy. In 2007, Vashistha founded NEOGROUP to help companies optimize major programs and governance. NEOGROUP provides best practices and resources to monitor, report and optimize major programs and governance.
Vashistha’s opinions are valued by media and Wall Street analysts such as CNN, ABCNews, CNBC, ITAA, SIG, Outsourcing World Summit, HRO World, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, Economist, CIO and other global organizations. Vashistha continues to be a vocal proponent of globalization and has taken on the critics, such as Lou Dobbs and his “Exporting America” segment on CNN. He has co-authored a book published by The McGraw-Hill Companies in January 2006 on services globalization titled, “The Offshore Nation” which focuses on the services globalization mega-trend and its economic and human impact on nations and firms.
