Conference Objective
To discuss stories of entrepreneurial success in Latin America and how these have positively impacted the world. These topics are chosen to inspire students to make decisions in their personal and professional lives that will help them become agents of innovation in Latin America and across the globe.
Guest Speaker Biographies
Bertha Gonzalez
CEO of Tequila Casa Dragones
Bertha Gonzalez is the CEO & Co-Founder of Casa Dragones Tequila, a luxury tequila company in Jalisco, Mexico. Before the establishment of Casa de Dragones Tequila, Bertha gathered experience in the industry, having held senior marketing and commercial positions at Jose Cuervo Tequila. Bertha also helped launch Revista DF, and in 2018, she was named by Forbes as one of Mexico's 100 most powerful women of the year. Bertha also became the first woman to be named Maestra Tequilera by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila. Bertha graduated Magna Cum Laude from Universidad Anahuac with a BA in Business Administration and received an MSC from Northwestern's Medill and Kellogg schools.
Juan Pablo del Valle Perochena
President of Mexichem
Juan Pablo del Valle Perochena serves as Chairman of the Board Mexichem SAB, a regional leader in plastics, the world leader in fluorspar mining and derivatives, and one of the world’s largest plastic pipes and fittings producers. During his time as Chairman, Mexichem became the world’s most global Latin American company, providing materials to companies in over 100 countries around the world. Mr. del Valle serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, The Nature Conservancy’s Latin America Conservation Council, and is Co-chairman of the Council of the Americas Advisory Board. Mr. del Valle holds a degree in Mechanical and Electric Engineering from Universidad Anahuac and received his MBA at the Harvard Business School.
Ricardo Ibarra Garcia
SVP & GM BIC Latin America
Ricardo Ibarra Garcia is the SVP & GM of BIC Latin America, a company dedicated to the manufacturing and distribution of Stationery, Lighters, and Shaving products present in over 160 countries around the world. Prior to BIC, Mr. Ibarra worked in International Finance and Marketing in Unilever, Mexico. He then served as the General Manager in the Southern Cone to Mattel until 2017. Ricardo holds an Industrial Engineering degree from The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and completed his MBA at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).
Cesar A. Hidalgo
Co-founder of Datawheel
Dr. César Hidalgo is the Associate Professor in media arts and sciences at MIT and Director of Collective Learning group. His research centralizes on the learning that exists in organizations and economies, and have successfully developed tools such as Pantheon, DataViva, DIVE, and The Observatory of Economic Complexity. Dr. Hidalgo is also the author of Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies and a co-author of The Atlas of Economic Complexity, and co-author of The Atlas of Economic Complexity. He is also the recipient of the Lagrange Prize, the most significant award in Complex Systems. Dr. Hidalgo holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor's degree in Physics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
