INTERNATIONAL FISCAL AUTONOMY AND COORDINATION FORUM FOR EFFECTIVE DECENTRALIZATION AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 1 2017 MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Ana María Rodríguez-Ortiz
Manager of the Institutions for Development Sector (IFD) since February 2011. She previously served as Manager of the Andean Country Group. Since joining the Bank in 1991, Mrs. Rodríguez-Ortiz has occupied several positions, including Senior Advisor to the Office of the Presidency from June 2008 to December 2010. She was the IDB’s Country Representative in Peru from August 2007 through June 2008. She has also been Chief Advisor to the Executive Vice Presidency; Chief of the Finance and Basic Infrastructure Division of the Regional Operations Department 3; Chief of the Country Division for Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; and Technical Advisor to the Executive Vice Presidency. Prior to working at the IDB, she served as Economic Advisor to the President of the National Banking Association in Colombia, worked at Banco de la Republica (Colombian Central Bank) and at the Banco Central Hipotecario of Colombia. Mrs. Rodríguez-Ortiz, a Colombian citizen, holds a Master of Arts in Development Economics from Williams College in Massachusetts and a degree in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.
Carlos Pineda Mannheim
Lead Specialist and Decentralization and Subnational Governments Coordinator of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB, working with the institution for approximately 15 years. He is an Architect and Urban Planner at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Territorial Planning from the Federal Technological Institute of Zürich, Switzerland, and a Master's degree in Administration with a specialization in Finance from the Instituto Tecnológico Of Superior Studies of Monterrey, Mexico. Prior to joining the Bank, he served as a consultant in regional development programs for the World Bank and the IDB and as Deputy Director of the Canadian Cooperation Office for Honduras. His areas of expertise include decentralization of the state, institutional and financial strengthening of subnational governments, Territorial development and the management of local and regional investments. He is a Honduran-German citizen. Andreas Kiefer
Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Andreas Kiefer holds a doctorate of Law (University of Salzburg) and a degree in "General Management with a focus on public management". He worked as Chief of Staff of Vice-Governor and later Governor (Landeshauptmann) of the Austrian State (Land) of Salzburg, Hans Katschthaler (1984–1995) and was Director of the European Affairs Service of the Land Salzburg regional government from 1996 to 2010. He was elected Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on 17 March 2010 and re-elected in March 2015 for a term of five years. Andreas Kiefer has published about local self-government, regionalism, federalism, interregional and cross-border co-operation, regions with legislative powers, the Austrian political system, about the local and regional dimension in the Council of Europe and the European Committee of the Regions.
Vicente Fretes Cibils
Chief of the Fiscal Management Division of the Sector of Institutions for Development of the IDB. He served in the World Bank from 1988 to 2007 in the Vice-Presidency of Operations of West Africa; Chief Economist in the Department of Operations of the Andean Countries; Chief Economist of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico and Leading Sector Economist for the Reduction of Poverty and Economic Management of the subregion of countries including Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. He has taught at the National University of the Northeast and North Carolina and has written several publications in the areas of finance, applied econometrics, public finance, international economics and economic development. He holds a master's and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina.
Carola Pessino
Principal Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB. She holds a Ph.D. and a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires. He was Member of the Economic Council of Advisors to the Minister of Economy and Secretary of Fiscal Equity in the Office of the Cabinet of Ministers in Argentina from 1996 to 1999. During his term he designed and implemented important projects including the Social and Security System Social, federal tax sharing, design, implementation and management (which continued until 2001) of the first integrated information system for tax and social purposes (SINTyS) in Latin America. She was a professor at Duke University in North Carolina, Professor and Director of the Department of Economics at UCEMA, Professor and Director of the Center for Social Assessment and Poverty Alleviation of Torcuato Di Tella University in Argentina. He has numerous publications in specialized journals on topics of fiscal equity, labor, educational, social and tax policies. She has been a consultant at the IDB, the World Bank and the United Nations. Hansjörg Blöchliger
Head of the Network on Fiscal Relations Across Government Levels and Senior Economist at the Economics Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Hansjörg is a Swiss national and joined the OECD in October 2005, where he leads a team of economists and statisticians, who focus on delivering economic analysis and advice on all issues relating to fiscal federalism as well as providing internationally comparable decentralisation statistics. Prior to joining the OECD, Hansjörg was deputy director in a Swiss economic research and forecasting institute. Hansjörg led a team of around 15 economists that focused on identifying the structural factors which underpin national and regional growth. He was involved in an encompassing reform of Swiss fiscal federalism in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Between 1994 and 1999 Hansjörg was Assistant Professor and Lecturer at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He holds a Master Degree of the University of Zürich and a PhD in economics of the University of Basel.
José Roberto Afonso
Economist graduating from the Catholic de Santos University (1982). He holds a Master's degree in Economics of Industry and Technology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1984) and a Ph.D. in Economic Development from the State University of Campinas (2010). He is currently a professor of the Brazilian Institute of Public Law (IDP) and a researcher at the Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (IBRE / FGV), an independent consultant and collaborator of multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the State University of Campinas and the Inter-American Development Bank. He was superintendent of the Economic and Social Development Bank and special technical adviser of the Federal Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and the National Constituent Assembly. He has extensive experience in economic affairs, with emphasis on income and taxation, acting especially on the following topics: tax collection, tax reform, fiscal responsibility, public deficit and macroeconomic policy.
Pedro Apezteguía
Director of Decentralization and Public Investment of the Office of Planning and Budget of Uruguay. Since 2005 he has served in the Executive Branch as Director General of the Ministries of Housing Territorial Ordering and Environment, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Between 1990 and 2005 he was Director of Transit and Trans- port of the Intendancy Department of Montevideo and Executive Secretary of the Financial Commission of the Southern Rambla. He has also served in the private sector as Manager of New Products and Co-Director of the CEPA International Data Center (Accident Prevention Center), and between 1978 and 2007 he has served as Professor of Chemistry at the Sacred Heart College (former Seminar). Andrés Muñoz
Specialist of the IDB's Fiscal Management Division in Brazil. He previously served as a consultant, researcher and adjunct professor in public finance for the United Nations Development Program, the Colombian Finance Ministry and the University of New York. His areas of specialization include the decentralization of the State and municipal finances in Latin America. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Univer- sidad de Los Andes, Colombia and a Master's and PhD in Public Administration from New York University.
Lili Liu
Former Global Director on Decentralization and Intergovernmental Finance in the Governance Global Practice of the World Bank. While at the World Bank, she led policy research on multilevel government finance in the context of macroeconomic adjustment, infrastructure financing, and capital market development. She co-chaired the Decentralization and Subnational Regional Economics Thematic Group, a Bankwide network with over 300 members. Dr. Liu led advisory services to the World Bank’s operations in many countries - including Albania, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, and Vietnam - on multilevel government finance, public finance legislation, infrastructure financing, and capital market development. Dr. Liu has published widely including books Until Debt Do Us Part and International Experience on Subnational Debt Management. She has given lectures at universities, including Columbia University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins, Central University of Economics and Finance in Beijing, and Fudan University in Shanghai. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Christine Martell
Associate Professor at the School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver where she focuses on issues of public finance and policy. Her research and teaching interests include debt policy issues, fiscal federalism, international development, and the development of municipal credit markets in developing countries. She has worked in the United States, Brazil, Georgia, Taiwan, and Jordan. Prior to joining University of Colorado Denver in 2000, Dr. Martell earned a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. of Public Affairs from Indiana University. Néstor Mario Urrea
Economist and Master in Economics degree from the National University of Colombia. Currently serving as Deputy Director of Support to Territorial Fiscal Sanitation of the Ministry of Finance of Colombia, directing and coordinating the policy actions related to subnational public finance, including the monitoring and evaluation of financial situations of subnational governments; the issuance of debt authorizations; the elaboration, negotiation, monitoring and evaluation of fiscal consolidation programs of sub-national governments; and the coordination of technical assistance for the institutional strengthening of sub-national governments in their fiscal and financial components. He has strong teaching experience in several universities, including the University of the Andes, the National University, the School of Public Administration and the University of the Atlantic.
Gustavo García
Principal Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB. He has been Director-founder of the Economic and Financial Advisory Office of the Congress of Venezuela (1997-2000); Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, and Director of Monetary and Financial Policies of the Ministry of Planning of Venezuela. He has also served as an economist at the IMF and has served as Professor of Macroeconomics, Public Finance and Currency and Banking at the Institute of Advanced Management Studies (IESA) from 1988 to 2008. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford United Kingdom) by the Andrés Bello Chair (2005-07). He holds a master's and doctoral studies from Boston University.
Alejandro Caldarelli
Secretary of Provinces of the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works and Housing of the Nation, holds a degree in Economics from the UBA. He was president and founding advisor of the Foundation of Studies for the Economic and Regional Development of Argentina (FEDERAR). Throughout his career he coordinated several UNDP projects in different provinces. Between 1998 and 1999 he was Undersecretary of Regional Economic Programming of the Ministry of Economy and Public Works and Services of the Nation. From 2000 to November 2015, he chaired Economía & Regiones, an organization specializing in economic and financial consulting activities, as well as the various aspects of public management of provincial and municipal states; and in regional development actions. Joan Rosselló Villalonga
Holds a degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona, as well as a Master’s degree in International Economics and a PhD in Economics, both from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He has been a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and at Harvard University. Since 2003 he is a Titular Professor at the Illes Balears University. Beyond the academic field, he served as the General Director of Budgets of the Government of the Balearic Islands and, at the moment, is Major Syndic of the Audit Office of the Balearic Islands. He is also the current President of the Association of External Control Bodies of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. His research and teaching has focused on the public economy, especially fiscal federalism and the regional economy.
Javier Pérez Burgos
Javier was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia where he earned a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History from the Universidad de los Andes. He also earned a Master’s degree in Economics from the same university. He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. His research and professional activities have covered the fields of urban economics, economic geography, regional science, and local economic development. He is especially interested in the way in which developing territories are affected by their social and geographical configuration. As Deputy of Sustainable Regional Development at the National Planning Department of Colombia he oversees the design and implementation of tools that strengthen local government’s institutional capabilities. Most recently he has focused this unit´s policy agenda on land-use tools as central instruments for the consolidation of regional development and fiscal sustainability.
José Larios
Senior Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB in Perú. He has more than 20 years of experience in tax reform, fiscal decentralization and municipal finance. He has participated in projects of fiscal reform and modernization, fiscal decentralization, municipal finances and introduction of technological solutions in the management of public finances. Before joining the IDB, he participated and led teams that modernized the Ministries of Finance in Guatemala, El Salvador, Moldova, Kosovo, and the Municipalities of San Salvador, El Salvador, Municipalities of the State of California, Albania, Macedonia, among others. He is an economist at the University of California, Berkeley; M.A. in Applied Economics from San Francisco State University; and M.A. of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at the University of Harvard. George McCarthy
President and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before joining the Lincoln Institute in 2014, Mr. McCarthy directed “Metropolitan Opportunity” at the Ford Foundation which sought to provide disadvantaged people better access to good jobs and other opportunities for advancement by supporting regional planning, and coordinated transportation and housing development to alleviate poverty and reduce its concentration in metropolitan areas in the U.S. and developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Before taking that position, he administered a program at Ford that focused on using homeownership to build assets for low-income families and their communities. He received a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics at the University of Montana; an M.A. in Economics at Duke University; and, a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
María Teresa Castro
Actuary by profession, María Teresa Castro Corro graduated from the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She currently serves as the head of Mexico’s Government Accounting Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, responsible for matters at the Federal level and serves as Technical Secretary of the National Council for Accounting Harmonization (CONAC)—the body responsible for accounting regulations at the National level. She has also served as General Director of Budgetary Policy in the Policy and Budgetary Control Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, where she was responsible for the integration of the Expenditure Budget of the Federation and Expenditure Control Policy. She has served as General Director of Programming and Budget in the Official Office of the Secretariat of Labor and Social Security, where she was in charge of the execution of the Budget of the mentioned Secretariat. She has also served as Director of Budgetary Control and Integration in the Policy and Budgetary Control Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, where she was responsible for the Public Expenditure Statistics and budget operation.
Marcelo Capello
Degree in economics from the National University of Colombia (1991) Master in Economics degree from the Georgetown University / University Alberto Hurtado (2000) Currently he serves as president of the Institute of Studies on the Argentinean and Latin American Reality- IERAL, Mediterranean Foundation. He has also served as Director of the economics degree at the School of Economics at the National University of Cordoba; Professor for undergraduate and graduate studies at the National University of Córdoba, Catholic University of Cordoba, Blas Pascal University and Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21. Previously he worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF). Mr. Capello is Ex-Advisor of Finance Ministry of the Province of Cordoba, and holds the awards of Fulvio Salvador Pagani from the Arcor Foundation, and from the Argentinean Federation of Professional Councils in Economic Science. (FACPCE) in 1996. Hugo Siles Núñez del Prado
Vice Minister Siles holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Catholic University of Córdoba, Argentina. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Autonomous Government from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain; and another one in International Commerce from the University NUR, Bolivia. He is professor of undergraduate studies at University NUR and at the Autonomous University Gabriel René Moreno of the city of Santa Cruz. He served as Senior Officer in the municipality of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (2000-2005). He also served as councilor in the same municipality (2010-2015) and is the president of the School of Internationalists of Santa Cruz (CISCRUZ). He is a well known analyst and expert on topics of international politics. On January 23, 2015 he took over the position as Minister of Autonomies of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and on January 26, 2017 he was named Vice minister of Autonomies of the Ministry of the Presidency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
Huáscar Eguino
Lead Specialist in Fiscal Management at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, D.C. Economist with specialization in municipal finance and management, fiscal decentralization. He holds a Master's degree in Local and Regional Development from the Institute for Social Studies (ISS, 1994-5) and postgraduate studies in Urban Development Financing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1997-8); Infrastructure Finance, Harvard University (2000); and Housing Finance, University of Pennsylvania (2007). He has more than 20 years of experience in Latin American and the Caribbean and has provided technical advice to 18 national governments and more than 100 sub-national entities. He also worked as University Lecturer, researcher, and consultant for entities such as UN Habitat and USAID.
Enid Slack
Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) and an Adjunct Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. IMFG is the only institute of its kind in North America, which focuses exclusively on the fiscal health and governance challenges faced by large cities and city-regions. Enid has written extensively on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, development charges, financing municipal infrastructure, municipal governance, and municipal boundary restructuring. Recent publications include two books co-edited with Richard Bird: Is Your City Healthy? Measuring Urban Fiscal Health and the upcoming Financing Infrastructure: Who Should Pay? Enid consults on municipal finance and governance issues with governments and international agencies such as the World Bank, IMF, UN Habitat, Asian Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. She has consulted in Canada as well as other countries including Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Africa, and Tanzania. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities. Sean M. Dougherty
Head of Secretariat, OCDE Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Paris School of Economics (Centre d'Économie de la Sorbonne), M.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania (1999); M.A. in Political Science from Rice University (1995); and a B.S. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts institute of Technology (1992). He has vast professional experience working at OCDE from 2003 to the present. Other experience includes: The Conference Board, New York, 1999-2003; Center for International Comparisons, University of Pennsylvania, 1998-99; MIT Science and Technology Initiative, Beijing and Hong Kong, 1997-98; The Columbia House Company, New York, 1994-96. He is the author of numerous publications the most recent being: "Pro-Productivity Institutions: Learning from National Experience" 2017; "Domestic Regulation, Import Penetration and Firm-Level Productivity Growth" 2017; "Could Mexico become the new 'China'? Policy drivers of firm-level competitiveness and productivity" 2016, among others.
Carlos Scartascini
Received his Doctorate and Master's degree in Economics from George Mason University (USA), and his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina). At George Mason University he received the William Snavely Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies in Economics. He currently works as Senior Economist in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. At the Bank, he has led several projects with policy implications, such as his work to understand the determinants of public policy demand, and the role of information in individual decisions. Carlos has published articles in some of the most prestigious specialized journals in Economics and Political Science, such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, the Journal of Theoretical Politics, the European Journal Of Political Economy, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution. He has presented his work in more than one hundred lectures and seminars.
Cristina Mac Dowell
Lead Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB in Brazil. Previously she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Applied Economic Research of the Government of Brazil (IPEA), Director of the School of Finance Administration (ESAF) of the Ministry of Finance of Brazil; And consultant to the World Bank, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). His areas of expertise include fiscal decentralization and subnational finance. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Brasilia, Brazil. José Barroso Tostes
Lead Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB in Brazil. Previously he was Fiscal Auditor of the Secretariat of the "Federal Revenue" of Brazil where he performed the functions of regional superintendent and coordinator of customs administration. He was also regional director of the "Escola de Fazendaária Fazendária - ESAF" of the Ministry of Finance, Secretary of Finance of the state of Pará and "Tax Advisor" of the International Monetary Fund. His areas of expertise include Public Finance, Tax Policy, Tax Administration, Customs Administration, Public Finance and fiscal decentralization. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Administration and Engineering and a Master's degree in Public Finance and Tax Administration at the Institute of Fiscal Studies in Spain.
Alfredo Víctor Cornejo
Governor of the Province of Mendoza since 2015. Previously, from 2011 to 2013 he served as the president of the Radical Civic Union of the Province of Mendoza. In October 2007 he was elected an intendant of the department of Godoy Cruz. In 2011 he was elected Mayor of Godoy Cruz. He holds a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the National University of Cuyo obtained in 1990. In 1991 he earned an International Diploma in Development, Planning and Public Policy by ECLAC and ILPES in Santiago, Chile, and subsequently an International Master’s in “Latin American Development” in Andalusia, Spain. He has also worked as a lecturer in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National University of Cuyo, chairing “Comparative Political Regimes” and “Analysis of Public Policies”
Jaime Bonet
Economist from the University of the Andes with a Master in Economics degree and a PhD in regional planning from the University of Illinois, USA. Since July 2013 he has served as Manager of the Cartagena branch of the Banco de la República where he is the director of the Center for Regional Economic Study (CEER). Mr. Bonet previously served as a senior specialist in fiscal and municipal management at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and as a senior researcher at CEER. He has held various positions including with the Chamber of Commerce of Barranquilla, DNP, the Senate and ICETEX, a governmental entity that promotes higher education. Mr. Bonet is the editor of two books: Economic Geography and Spatial Analysis in Colombia and Subnational Transfer Systems: Lessons for a Reform in Colombia; published by Banco de la República within the Regional Economy Collection. He has also contributed to edit several essays from Banco de la República and other publications with the IDB. Caroline Pöschl
Manager in the Global Fiscal Policy team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC UK) in London, leading on tax policy and decentralisation reform projects in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Her recent projects have dealt with the tax incentives regime in Malawi; simplifying tax compliance for MSMEs in the Democratic Republic of Congo; tax compliance strategies for the Turkish Revenue Authority; and local government revenue options for decentralised governments in Ukraine. Prior to joining PwC UK, Caroline worked at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, focusing on tax policy and fiscal decentralisation in Latin America. Caroline completed her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (thesis: Local Taxation and Accountability in Mexico). She also holds a law degree from the University of Vienna and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Axel Radics
Senior Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB in Uruguay, where he contributes to the Bank's work agenda on decentralization and fiscal reform. At the IDB, he worked as a Specialist in Representation in Lima, Peru, and worked in the Office of Monitoring and Evaluation. In the National Government of Argentina, he coordinated the "Cristal" fiscal transparency program and the Electronic Government initiative of the Cabinet Chief of Ministers, and was a researcher at CIPPEC and CEDI. Axel is an Economist from the University of San Andrés de Argentina, MPP from the Harvard School of Government and a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Emilio Pineda
Principal Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB in Argentina. He worked as an economist in the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Columbia University. He joined the Ministry of Finance from 2008 to 2012, where he was responsible for other subnational debt oversight issues, the fiscal regime scheme and the prices of the two most important Mexican State owned companies, the company (PEMEX) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Columbia University. Josep-Ramón Ferrer
Engineer in telecommunications and in electronics and holds a Master’s degree in Digital Broadcast. He is the former Deputy CIO and former Director of Smart Cities of the Barcelona City Council (2012-2015). During this period, he also served as the CEO of the Barcelona Institute of Technology (BIT). Barcelona was recognized as one of the most awarded cities in the world for smart city and innovation programs during this time. Previously, he served in various executive positions within the Government of Catalonia, all related to telecommunications and information society, where he was appointed Director-General of Telecommunications and Director-General of Information Society. He has been president of the Association of Telecommunication Engineers of Catalonia and has participated in expert consultation processes and advisory boards of the European Commission, the Spanish Ministry of Industry and the National Telecommunications Market Commission. Currently, he is working for Doxa Innova & Smart Consulting as a Director of Institutional Business Development; and serves as Vice-President of the Catalan Telecom Engineer Association.
Amy Sawyer
Ms. Sawyer is a veteran government technology executive with over thirteen years of experience delivering technology solutions for State and local government partners in the United States. She currently serves as General Manager for NIC’s Gov2Go product division, where her focus has been the enterprise expansion of the Gov2Go platform and the development of consumer centric features and capabilities. Founded in 1992, NIC Inc. (NASDAQ: EGOV) is celebrating 25 years as the nation's premier provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government interactions more accessible for everyone through technology. NIC has developed a library of more than 12,000 digital government services for more than 4,500 federal, state, and local government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking digital government personal assistant, Gov2Go, delivering citizens personalized reminders and a single access point for government interactions.
Eudaldo Almeida
Bachelor of Public Administration degree from the State Federal University of Bahia -1986, and a Bachelor of Law degree from the Catholic University of Salvador-1994. He earned a degree in Tax Law from the Law School Foundation Federal University of Bahia – UFBA; a specialization in Organizational Psychology - Colleges Salvador-UNIFACS - Salvador - Bahia; and a specialization in Economic Integration and Fiscal International Law from the School of Finance Administration ESAF - Brasília / EU and Getulio Vargas – FGV. He has also studied Strategic Management in Information Technology - CETEAD - UFBA. He has served as the General Coordinator of the National Meeting of Coordinators of Tax Administrators - ENCAT (since 2002). He has also served as Coordinator of the National Steering Committee of Fiscal Electronic Document (Union, states and municipalities); Coordinator of the National Electronic Invoice projects, the Electronic Bill of Lading and Brazil Id; Treasury Group Employee SEFAZ Bahia since January 1981. José Luis Rodas
Business Administrator, having graduated from the University of San Carlos de Guatemala he began his career in 2003 as a Municipal Advisory Technician for the SIAF project with UNDP financing from the Ministry of Public Finance of Guatemala. Subsequently he has served independently as a Municipal Consultant working directly with the communes of southern Guatemala from 2007 to 2013; and from 2014 onwards he has been hired in the training area of the Directorate of Assistance to the Municipal Financial Administration -DAAFIM- governing body by the Ministry of Public Finance for the Local Governments of the Republic of Guatemala. He currently serves as Director of the -DAAFIM- from where he directs the team in charge of technical assistance and support of the Integrated System for Local Governments -SicoinGL-.
Carlos Pimenta
Principal Specialist of the Fiscal Management Division of the IDB. He has more than 25 years of experience in public management modernization, including 8 years in the government of Brazil, 5 years in private consulting firms, and 13 as specialist at the IDB, where he led public management reform projects in more than 10 countries, Latin America and the Caribbean. During the 1990s in Brazil he held the positions of Executive Secretary of the State Reform Council, National Secretary in the Ministry of Administration and State Reform, President of the National School of Public Administration, and Deputy Minister of Labor and Public administration. He holds degrees in public administration and a master's degree in public management from the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. Currently he focuses mainly in the areas of public financial management.
Teresa Ter-Minassian
Mrs. Ter-Minassian holds degrees in Law from the University of Rome, Italy and in Economics from Harvard University in the United States. From 1967 to 1978, she was on the staff of the Central Bank of Italy, part of the time on secondment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the IMF, she was for eight years Chief of the Southern European Division in the European Department (which covered Italy, Spain, and Portugal, among other countries). In this capacity, she negotiated the 1983 IMF Stand-By Agreement with Portugal. From 1988 to 1996, she held the position of Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the Fund. In 1990, she headed the IMF Task Force for the joint study of the Soviet economy, commissioned to the IMF, IBRD, OECD and EBRD by the G7. Between 1997 and 2000, as Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere Department, she headed the negotiations of the IMF programs with Brazil and Argentina, as well as overseen the department's work on various other countries in the region. Her areas of principal interest and expertise include macroeconomic analysis, fiscal policy, budget management and intergovernmental fiscal relations. She has published several papers in these areas, including the book entitled Fiscal Federalism in Theory and Practice.