Focus: Business
Massimo Lapucci
Massimo Lapucci is Secretary General of Fondazione CRT, a philanthropic foundation based in Italy with an endowment of about 3 billion euros. He is also the Secretary General of the Development and Growth Foundation, a foundation primarily focused on impact investing. Massimo is also Chair of the European Foundation Centre, the international network of institutional philanthropy based in Brussels. Massimo has an extensive international experience as a board member for public and private companies in various industries (including finance, banking, media and infrastructures) and nonprofit organizations in the EU and the Americas, including the Rockefeller Philanthropy Europe, the advisory board of the London School of Economics-Marshall Institute, and the ISI…
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Balázs László Karafiáth
Balázs "László" Karafiáth, an economist by trade and one of Hungary’s best-known Internet entrepreneurs, is Strategic Director of in-Depth SOULutions, a professional training and coaching company based in Budapest. He previously ran Culture Culture Inc., a unique communications research and consulting enterprise. László has been fascinated with culture since his teenage years and helped start one of Europe’s most popular week-long music and arts festivals, Sziget, when he was 20 years old. He was a radio host and DJ for 7 years at the opinion-leading Tilos community radio of Budapest. A serial entrepreneur, László co-founded Darwin’s Marketing Evolution in 2003 in Budapest. Using meme science, the company works with Fortune…
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Peter Gulliver
Peter Gulliver works at Bank Leumi USA as Chief Strategy Officer, where his team leads the bank's corporate strategy development, financial planning and analysis, and enterprise data and analytics. Peter has built his career at the intersection of management advisory and entrepreneurship, with industry expertise in energy, healthcare, finance, and early-stage ventures. He specializes in helping organizations drive growth during periods of rapid change, which has led him to work in sectors like emerging markets and inner cities. He graduated from the Yale School of Management in May 2009. Prior to receiving his MBA Peter worked in international development, focusing on power and water systems. His long-term goal is to…
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David Fuentes-Montero
David Fuentes-Montero is General Manager of BD Consultores, a technology consulting company based in San José, Costa Rica. He was formerly Deputy CEO of Banco Internacional de Costa Rica, a state-owned commercial bank, where he was responsible for developing the strategy for Financing Trade Commerce to support development of the Central American region. He served as Costa Rica’s Minister of Finance until May 2006, having previously served as Vice Minister. While serving in the top two positions in the Ministry of Finance, he negotiated significant fiscal reforms and maintained economic stability during a period of rising oil prices, achieving the lowest budget deficit level in the country’s recent history. Prior…
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Mitsuru Claire Chino
Mitsuru "Claire" Chino is Managing Executive Officer of ITOCHU Corporation, a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in Japan, and she is President & CEO of ITOCHU International Inc., a subsidiary of Itochu in New York, overseeing North America. Before assuming her position in New York, she was General Counsel of Itochu, and prior to that, a partner with an international law firm. In 2013, she became the first female executive officer of any major trading company in Japan. Claire has received several recognitions, including from the World Economic Forum (Young Global Leader), Asia Society (Asia 21), the U.S. Japan Foundation (USJLP Fellow), and is a Smith Medalist. She has also…
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Taz Chaponda
Taz Chaponda is the CEO of Malawi Agricultural and Industrial Investment Corporation, a government initiative but private sector-led development finance institution, launched by Malawi President Peter Mutharika. Taz is a development economist with extensive experience across Sub-Saharan Africa, having worked in the major economic centers of Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg. Previously, he was a public financial management specialist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. and a partner at Genesis-Analytics – a South African economic advisory firm working in emerging markets. Prior to Genesis, Taz was the head of the South African Budget Office, responsible for the national and provincial budget framework. He was also head of infrastructure finance…
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Katherine Pustay Currie
Katherine “Kat” Pustay Currie is a lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global consultancy firm. A graduate of Yale’s School of Management, she previously served as Deputy Staff Director to the Steering Committee in the U.S. Senate and as policy staff to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in Washington, D.C. While at the Department of the Interior, she represented DOI in the 2010 oil spill response and served on the White House Council for Women and Girls. Kat spent the previous five years in Anchorage, Alaska advancing political, legislative, and environmental initiatives through work in the Alaska State Legislature and political campaigns.
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Adrien Couton
Adrien Couton’s work focuses on bringing innovations to the global efforts and institutions supporting economic development. He is Vice President for the EMEA Region and for International development at Premise Data, a technology company leveraging big data analytics, a network of contributors in over 30 countries, and smartphone capabilities to measure economic and human development trends in real-time and guide major development players. Previously, he was a Partner and the Director of the Water Practice at Dalberg, a consulting firm specialized on global development. Earlier, he helped implement entrepreneurial solutions to water issues in both operational roles (as CEO of Naandi Water, the largest operator of community water systems in…
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Pablo Bereciartua
Pablo Bereciartua is Argentina's Secretary of State for Infrastructure and Water and is Founder and CEO of Bereco SA & Bereco Labs, Inc., a company focused on innovation, technology, and management. He is also the founder of other technology based companies such as B3 and Agro Appgrade SA. In the public sector, he has served as the director of infrastructure for the city of Buenos Aires, where he faced both enormous challenges and opportunities to apply new technologies to city and regional infrastructure. Pablo is a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and former dean at the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology, where he focused on teaching and researching…
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Amine Belaicha
Amine Belaicha runs Numid-Invest, a private investment and advisory firm providing consulting services to foreign companies developing business opportunities in North Africa. The firm also supports local companies in planning their strategic development, finding investors, and raising debt. Amine previously served as Vice-President of Investments for Swicorp Private Equity in Tunis, where he gained transactional experience across the region in a variety of sectors, including consumer goods, insurance, and pharmaceuticals. Earlier, he worked as a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Paris serving clients in continental Europe, the UK, and the MENA region. Since 2010, Amine has been a lecturer at HEC Paris Business School. Amine is also…
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