Northern Triangle Advisory Group

The Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center (AALAC) Northern Triangle Advisory Group (NTAG) in partnership with DT Institute, focuses on core issues facing Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador: sustainable economic development, rule of law, climate migration, and conflict reduction. The group came together at a defining moment as the region continued to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of devastating back-to-back hurricanes in late 2020. At the same time, the Biden-Harris’ administration, with the July 2021 release of the Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America brings renewed hope for a renewed partnership with Central American countries to address the root causes of migration.

NTAG brings together an influential group of advisors from the region, including former government officials, business leaders, academics, and civil society members, to propose and galvanize support for actionable recommendations that address the Northern Triangle’s most salient issues. The three policy briefs below capture NTAG’s analysis and proposals.

NTAG Policy Briefs

Policy Brief 1: The Role of the Private Sector in the Northern Triangle

Policy Brief 2: Combatting corruption in the Northern Triangle

Policy Brief 3: Addressing Instability in Central America

Members of the Northern Triangle Advisory Group

Northern Triangle Advisory Group members have provided critical insight and ideas as part of the drafting of the issue briefs. Findings and recommendations of these publications; however, do not necessarily reflect the personal opinions of the individuals listed below or the organizations to which they are affiliated.

NTAG Bios

Marcos Andrés Antil is founder and chief operating officer of XumaK a leading digital marketing company. Since XumaK’s inception in late 2003, it has provided services to companies across more than twenty-five countries worldwide. In 2008, Antil led XumaK to expand its operations throughout Latin America and open its first office in Guatemala, followed by Colombia. Marcos holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science with a minor in communications from California State University, Bakersfield. Marcos strives to be involved in his community, especially in his native Guatemala where he promotes free education for children. In 2012, the government of Guatemala declared him an ambassador for peace due to his contributions to education and his inspirational story. In 2014, Marcos was keynote speaker for the MBA graduation ceremony at Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas in Costa Rica, which was once Latin America’s highest-ranked business university. That same year, Prensa Libre, which was once the highest distributed newspaper in Guatemala, recognized him as person of the year for his achievements as an entrepreneur, his journey as a migrant, and his work in education in Guatemala. Marcos has also been a columnist at Prensa Libre since early 2015.

---

Ricardo Castañeda is a senior economist and country coordinator for El Salvador and Honduras at Instituto Centroamericanos de Estudios Fiscales (ICEFI). He has been working at ICEFI since 2013, starting as a research economist. Castañeda has been a university professor and authored multiple investigations into public finances. In his previous roles, he has coordinated studies on investments in rural development, poverty, inequality, and fiscal policy. He has also collaborated with fiscal studies in the budget analysis and monitoring unit of the finance and special budget commission of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and is a member of the Central American Integration System’s Network of Experts in Regional Integration. He is also an opinion columnist.

Castañeda is a Salvadoran economist and graduated from the University of El Salvador. He holds a master’s degree in government and public management in Latin America from the Pompeu Fabra University’s Institute of Continuing Education in Barcelona. He also has a master’s degree in media policy, maps, and tools for a new culture of citizenship from the Complutense University of Madrid.

---

Jamie Díaz Palacios is the executive vice-president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. Díaz Palacios has a professional career of more than fifteen years in the fields of economics and finance for development, in the public sector, and in economic development.  Previously, he led the National Competitiveness Program in Guatemala between 2012 and 2015, and he worked at the World Bank as senior advisor for the executive director from 2015 and 2019. His work experience is additionally supported by his undergraduate studies in economics from the Francisco Marroquín University of Guatemala, a master in economics from the London School of Economics, and by a master in public administration from Harvard University.

---

Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American studies at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western-hemisphere actors as well as transnational or Victor Juárez is the founder of TuConsejeria, a web-based solution that allows anyone to chat confidentially in real time with mental-health professionals. His background includes working on international cooperation, business, higher education, entrepreneurship, migration, tourism, and health in Central America. For the last two years, he has been working on bridging the gap in mental-health access among underserved populations in Guatemala through TuConsejeria. He is a 2012 International Visitor Leadership Program fellow, 2016 Young Leaders of the Americas fellow, a 2019 Central American Healthcare Initiative fellow, and a 2021 Halcyon fellow. Juárez has more than fifteen years of experience and a great passion for Guatemala and youth in the region.

---

Salvador Paiz is the president of the Fundación Sergio Paiz Andrade (FUNSEPA) and has worked towards Guatemala’s development. FUNSEPA leverages technology to improve the quality of education at a national scale; it has donated28,010 computers to 1,700 public schools, totaling support to more than half a million children. FUNSEPA has also trained more than ninety thousand of the country’s teachers, helping them use technology as an educational tool. The foundation has worked as Guatemala’s Ministry of Education technological arm and has established strong alliances with other entities.  Paiz has also launched and supported transformational initiatives, including ones that intend to improve Guatemala’s educational system. He has been involved in projects such as Empresarios por la Educación and the Commission for Quality Education for All of the Inter-American Dialogue.

---

María Tuyuc is the president of the Global Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs of Guatemala, a grassroots business movement with a communal and indigenous identity. Originally from San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala, Tuyuc is of Maya Kaqchikel origin. As an expert in indigenous affairs, Tuyuc is a national and international consultant on conflict transformation, historical memory, human rights, legal pluralism, access to justice for indigenous peoples and women, and justice and security issues. She also serves as legal representative of several initiatives such as the World Indigenous Businesses Network, as well as the Network of Indigenous Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs of the Americas. As an advisor on indigenous entrepreneurship and other business topics, Tuyuc has been a speaker at national and international conferences, forums, and events. She has been part of teams that conducted research and published studies on issues of justice for indigenous people. She is a founding member of various women’s organizations. Her work in support of indigenous micro and small companies has been recognized nationally and internationally. She also holds a certificate in ILO methodology for business support and has completed coursework in legal studies, the social sciences, and network management.

---

Edgar Villanueva is the co-executive director of the US-Guatemala Business Council and is responsible for its management and initiatives. He is also a part of its board of directors. Before joining the US-Guatemala Business Council, Villanueva was an adviser to the Guatemalan minister of labor and minister of government on international and legal affairs. Prior to that he was member of the diplomatic service, where he last served as the deputy chief of mission of the Guatemalan embassy in the United States until 2016. In that position, he was also in charge of congressional relations and helped build bipartisan support for issues related to Guatemala. In 2011, he was awarded the Monja Blanca Decoration from the Guatemalan Ministry of Defense for his commitment to strengthening US-Guatemala relations. Before his diplomatic post, Villanueva worked for Guatemala-based law firms on local and international corporate affairs.

Villanueva holds a law degree from Francisco Marroquín University and a master’s in law from the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC. He speaks Spanish and English.

*Edgar Villanueva currently serves as environment analysis manager for Corporación Multi Inversiones. He contributed to this project as a member of the organization listed above.

---

María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and a former minister of foreign affairs for the Republic of El Salvador. Brizuela de Ávila started her career with her family’s businesses, such as La Auxiliadora Funeral Home, eventually becoming chief executive officer and president. She founded Internacional de Seguros in 1997, becoming the first woman president of an insurance company in El Salvador. From 1999 to 2004, she was the first woman to be designated minister of foreign affairs of El Salvador. In 2004, she was elected first woman president of a private bank in El Salvador. When Banco Salvadoreño forced an alliance with Banistmo, the biggest regional bank, she was elected chief executive officer, keeping this position even when HSBC, one of the world’s largest financial conglomerates, acquired a controlling majority in 2006. In 2007, she pioneered a new role in the region becoming corporate sustainability head for HSBC Latin America until March 2015.

Brizuela de Ávila currently leads Inversiones Vision, her executive coaching and consulting firm in El Salvador. She serves as on the board of several nonprofits such as the University of Miami External Advisory Board on Latin America, and as non-executive director on business boards, such as that of the Davivienda Financial Conglomerate in El Salvador and Honduras. Brizuela de Ávila has an academic background in art, insurance (at the Insurance Institute of Switzerland), and law (at Universidad Dr. Jose Matias Delgado). She attained a master’s in business administration from the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE) Business School and a postgraduate degree in sustainable business from the University of Cambridge. She taught at two universities in El Salvador and lectured at INCAE Business School in Costa Rica

---

Diego de Sola is co-founder and president of Glasswing. He strives to foster a more trusting, and thereby efficient, environment in El Salvador and the region through his involvement in business and non-profits. De Sola brings over twenty years of experience in the private sector, both in the United States and Central America. He is currently chief executive officer of Inversiones Bolívar, a regional real-estate development firm.

De Sola is an alumnus of the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, Cornell University, and New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has been a fellow and moderator of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network since 2005 and is part of the 2012 class of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

---

Roberto Rubio is executive director at the Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo, a think tank based in El Salvador. He is also coordinator for Transparency International’s chapter in El Salvador. Rubio is founding member of Fundación Democracia, Transparencia y Justicia, a non-profit organization focused on building citizenship and promoting dialogue among people with diverse ideologies. From 1997 to 2009, he was a member of El Salvador’s National Commission for Development. He has been a columnist for La Prensa Gráfica since 1997. Rubio has a PhD in development studies from the Catholic University at Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium and PhD in economics from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the José Simeón Cañas Central American University in El Salvador.

---

Javier Simán is president of the Asociación Nacional de la Empresa Privada (ANEP), as well as a business leader and lawyer from El Salvador. He manages businesses in a wide range of industries including retail, textiles, apparel, agriculture, banking, and insurance. He previously served as president of the Salvadorian Industrial Association, president of the Central American Industrial Federation, vice-president of the Textile and Apparel Industry Association, and director of the Asociación Nacional de la Empresa Privada. Simán has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Loyola University and a juris doctor degree from Loyola School of Law. He attended the master in international law program at Georgetown University Law Center and Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers. He is an active member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Inter-American Bar Association, and the International Bar Association.

---

Marjorie Trigueros is director at the Department of Legal Studies of Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social. She has participated in various public-private dialogue spaces as a representative of the academic sector, in the Economic and Social Council, in a technical panel of the Growth Council under the Partnership for Growth between El Salvador and the United States, and in the Consultive Council under the Plan of the Alliance for the Prosperity in the Northern Triangle. She is part of the Fortune-US Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, a program that draws on the knowledge and expertise of US leaders to empower aspiring women professionals across the globe. Trigueros is now an active member of Vital Voices El Salvador, a nongovernmental organization that promotes female empowerment. Previously, she worked as legal advisor of the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of El Salvador, an organization that promotes foreign direct investment and exports. Trigueros also previously worked in the Ministry of Economy as a member of the Salvadoran negotiating team of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Marjorie is one of twelve Salvadoran leaders that are members of the Central American Prosperity Project, a program to develop action-oriented strategies for achieving inclusive growth in the Northern Triangle launched in 2018 by the George W. Bush Institute. Trigueros is a fellow of the twelfth class of the Central American Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

---

Claudia Umaña Araujo is the president of the Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social (FUSADES) and a lawyer, activist, and legal researcher. She is the first woman president of FUSADES, which has been ranked among the top twelve think tanks in Latin America by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. She founded and was formerly president of Democracy–Transparency–Justice (DTJ), which promotes transparency, women’s rights, and rule of law. Umaña Araujo was also a public servant for almost a decade working as the director of trade/commercial policy of the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador, with the rank of special ambassador for trade negotiations. During the years that she held office, she coordinated the team that negotiated the World Trade Organization agreements, the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, the Central America-Chile Free Trade Agreement, and other trade treaties. She was also the head of the Central American Economic Integration process. In 2014 and 2018, she was awarded the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins in rank of officer by the government of Chile. Umaña Umaña Araujo is one of twelve Salvadoran leaders that are members of the Central American Prosperity Project, a program to develop action-oriented strategies for achieving inclusive growth in the Northern Triangle, launched in 2018 by the George W. Bush Institute. In 2020, in honor of International Women’s Day, Bush Institute experts recognized her as a trailblazing woman in their leadership programs. Umaña Araujo is a fellow of the sixth class of the Central America Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

---

Gabriella Castellanos is the executive director of the National Anticorruption Council (CNA), a civil society organization focused on preventing, dissuading, and fighting corruption in Honduras. During her time at the CNA, Gabriella has presented over 127 complaints to Honduras’s justice operators, and the complaints represent damages of 7.328 million Honduran lempiras—equivalent to more than $30.5 million. Castellanos is a professor of law at National Autonomous University of Honduras. She is co-author of an analysis on the judicial framework applicable to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as director of polls about the generalities, structure, and legal environment of NGOs. She writes for one of Honduras’s top newspapers, covering corruption, social issues, regional challenges, and other topics that are relevant to Honduran citizens. She is an attorney with a degree in judicial and social sciences from the National Autonomous University of Honduras, where she took courses in ]criminal law, non-profit law, human rights, violence, and social coexistence.

---

Jacqueline Foglia Sandoval is the executive director of the National Investment Council (CNI). The CNI is a public entity focused on the promotion and facilitation of private investment in Honduras. Foglia served as an officer in the Honduran Army and held senior management positions at Cargill Corporation and Tigo, a brand owned by media company Millicom. She was assistant secretary of state for tourism in Honduras and owned a consulting firm that provided guidance in international business focusing on attracting foreign investment. Foglia participated in the negotiations for the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. She also served as director of external relations at Zamorano University in Honduras and as university outreach officer at the American University of Afghanistan. She is the first foreign female graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point. She earned a Fulbright Scholarship to obtain a master in international relations and economics at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. She has a certificate degree in trade policy and commercial law from Carleton University in Canada and an executive MBA from Universidad Francisco de Vitoria of Spain. Foglia is a fellow of the third class of the Central America Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

---

Carlos Hernández is co-founder and executive director of the Association for a Fairer Society, Transparency International’s local chapter in Honduras. He also serves as president of the Transformemos Honduras coalition and is on the boards of directors of the Alliance for Peace and Justice and the Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Development of Honduras —all organizations with considerable success in advocacy and social oversight on issues of peace, citizen security, and transparency. In Honduras, Hernández is an opinion leader on issues related to public policy, corruption, transparency, democracy, and development. He has also spoken at international conferences on security, transparency, and development. In recent years, Hernández has worked on reforming the Honduran security, justice, education, health, and democratic systems, while also strengthening the transparency of the State.

---

Guillermo Peña is president of Fundación Eléutera and a political economist focused on economic development through the private sector. At Fundación Eléutera, founded in 2013,  Peña focuses on upward social mobility, migration, education, electricity market reform, e-government, and bureaucratic simplification.

In the private sector, he is president of Orchid Properties, a company that focuses on the development of special economic zones, and managing partner of Blackbeard Media Group, a brand and strategy firm. He also serves as a nonprofit board member of the Free Zone Association of the Americas, a board member of the Asociación Nacional de Industriales (Honduras), and as the vice chair of the Honduran Electricity Market Operator.

---

Juan Carlos Sikaffy is the president of the Honduran Council of Private Business. He also served as president pro tempore of the Mesoamerican Business Council in 2021. Previously, Sikaffy served as president of the Honduran Chamber of the Construction Industry from 2018-2020 and of the Federation of Private Entities of Central America, Panama and Dominican Republic from 2019 to 2020. Sikaffy actively participates in various committees and initiatives representing the private business sector and promoting trade facilitation, simpler administration, and a better business environment for national and international business. He was a member of the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Account of Honduras, commissioner of the National Investment Council from 2014 to 2018, member of the board of directors of the National Economic Development Program of Honduras, and member of the National Logistics Council representing the private business sector. In addition, he is the founder of Bijao Electric Company, Cementos SA,, and Sociedad General de Aceros SA. Sikaffy is the recipient of the 2013 Organización Regional de Cámaras de la Construcción de Centroamérica y el Caribe award and the 2020 Builder Award.

Sikaffy graduated from Florida International University with a degree in industrial engineering with a concentration in economic engineering and a post-graduate degree in anthropology.

---

As rector of INCAE Business School since 2015, Enrique Bolaños has strived for academic excellence and leads the transformation of the institute. Under his leadership, INCAE has been rated the best business school in Latin America, according to the Financial Times, and has obtained the triple crown of accreditation, among other accreditations. Under his leadership, INCAE has strengthened ties with some of the most prestigious business schools in the United States, broadened the diversity of its faculty in terms of gender and represented nationalities, and renewed the academic curriculum of its master’s programs. According to Bolaños, one of his greatest successes was, even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, his design of an extensive program of online courses in partnership with Emeritus. With the launch of INCAE Online in 2019 under Bolaños, the institute successfully moved into high-quality online education. Under his leadership, INCAE founded the Latin American Center for Entrepreneurship, and Bolaños has led landmark initiatives at other INCAE centers including the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development and the Center for Collaborative and Women’s Leadership. He is president of the Enrique Bolaños Foundation and a member of the board of directors of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development. Bolaños holds a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s in business administration from INCAE Business School. His work experience includes his role as chief executive officer of Flexsys in Brussels, Belgium, where he led the company in becoming a leader in the rubber additives industry.

---

Laura Chinchilla Miranda is a political scientist who served as the first woman president of the Republic of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014 after serving in various other public service roles, including vice president of Costa Rica, minister of public security, president of the National Immigration Board, and president of the National Drug Council. Currently, Chinchilla resides in Washington, DC, where she is a member of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center Advisory Council, teaches at Georgetown University, and serves as co-chair of the Inter-American Dialogue.

---

Arturo Aguilar is director, Central America at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and a lawyer, investigator, and political strategist with over twenty years of experience in justice and democracy in Latin America. His passion for service began at just eighteen years old, when Arturo was instrumental to solving the murder of Bishop Gerardi in Guatemala—one of the post-civil war landmark cases which was immortalized in The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? He spent the next four years working for the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations in Guatemala. Aguilar was also previously secretary of strategic and private affairs to Guatemala’s first woman attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz, and in his role, Aguilar built key alliances with regional governments in Latin America, Europe, and across all levels of the US government. He also developed a large network of political contacts and allies across different sectors of society. The team made strides in reforming the public ministry and the prosecution process of organized crime, including war crimes, resulting in a significant drop in impunity rates. The team also prosecuted Guatemala’s first-ever genocide case in a national court.

Aguilar served as senior political officer to the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The commission has been a driving force in a series of investigations regarding state capture, corruption, money laundering, fraud, and organized crime in the public and private sector. CICIG also helped develop profound legal and institutional reforms in the criminal justice system in Guatemala. Aguilar’s most recent post was as executive director of Seattle International Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on democracy, rule of law, good governance, and women’s rights in Central America.

---

Mari Carmen Aponte was formerly the acting assistant secretary in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Previously, Aponte was the ambassador of the United States to El Salvador from 2012 until February 2016. Her priorities in El Salvador included expanding crime prevention, growing the economy, and moving the country towards democracy, sustainable development, and respect for human rights.

She is the first Puerto Rican woman to hold the title of US ambassador. Born in Puerto Rico, Aponte moved to the United States to pursue a better education. After earning a bachelor’s in political science from Rosemont College, she taught in Camden, New Jersey, and became aware of the underrepresented educational needs of minority students. Aponte earned a JD from the Temple University Beasley School of Law. She was one of the few Puerto Rican women enrolled in a US accredited law program at that time and, subsequently, the first Latina lawyer in Pennsylvania. President Jimmy Carter appointed Aponte as a White House Fellow in 1979.

She continued practicing law in DC and co-founded one of the first minority-owned law firms in the city. In 1984, Aponte was elected the first woman president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. She continued to hold leadership positions for the next twenty-five years, advocating for women and the Latino community. From 2001-2004, she was executive director of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration. She was also on the board of directors for the National Council of La Raza and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and later provided strategic counsel for the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, a Spanish-speaking national non-commercial television network. Aponte received the 2015 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association in recognition of her community service.

---

---

---

Enrique Roig is director, citizen security practice area at Creative Associates International, where he leads international development projects related to citizen security across the globe. Prior to joining Creative Associates International, Roig worked as the coordinator for the Central American Regional Security Initiative and as a citizen security specialist at the United States Agency for International Development. He has nearly twenty years of experience in democratization and governance, conflict prevention and resolution, and humanitarian assistance. Throughout his career, Roig has led various international-development and citizen-security initiatives in the Northern Triangle of Central America, Colombia, Panama, and Serbia. Roig holds an MA in international relations from American University in Washington, DC, and a BA in political science from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

*Enrique Roig currently serves as senior advisor for the US Department of State’s Office of the Undersecretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights. He contributed to this project as a member of the organization listed above.

---

Matthew Rooney is head of the the George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, where he focuses on analyzing the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the growth, job creation, and competitiveness of the economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In his role, he also focuses on building a network of thought leaders in Central America committed to promoting economic policy reforms to put the region on a sustained and broad-based growth track.

Previously, in his foreign-service career at postings in Washington and abroad, Rooney focused on advocating market-driven solutions to economic-policy challenges in both industrialized and developing countries, and on protecting the interests of US companies abroad. In Washington, Rooney was on loan to the US Chamber of Commerce to create a high-level private-sector advisory body for the Summits of the Americas, working closely with the US private sector and with companies and business associations from throughout the Americas to negotiate an agenda to promote economic integration in the region. Previously, he was the deputy assistant secretary responsible for relations with Canada and Mexico and for regional economic policy. In prior Washington assignments, Rooney worked for then-Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) and supported negotiations to open global markets to US airline services.

Abroad, Rooney was the US Consul General in Munich, providing a full range of consular and export-promotion services, supporting a permanent presence of thirty thousand US forces in two major base complexes, and carrying out a media and public relations initiative in support of US diplomatic objectives in Germany. As counselor for economic and commercial affairs at the US embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, he laid the groundwork for free trade negotiations between the United States and the five countries of Central America and promoted market-based reforms for electrical power. Prior to this, Rooney served in various posts in Germany, Gabon, and Côte d’Ivoire. Rooney studied economics, German, and French at the University of Texas at Austin and received his master’s degree in international management at the University of Texas at Dallas.

---

Santiago Sedaca is the chief investment officer and global economic growth practice lead at DT Global. In this role, Sedaca serves as a member of DT Global’s executive leadership team, developing and leading a global economic growth practice area, assuming a leadership role on corporate development and acquisition prospecting, and working closely with the DT Institute on their economic growth efforts – all while ensuring seamless collaboration with our current economic growth teams in the European, Australian, and US operations.

Sedaca brings with him decades of experience as an industry leader, and a respected development innovator and practitioner. He has worked with all major bilateral development agencies and development banks, managed significant public-private partnerships across Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Most recently, Sedaca was at Palladium, where he was a Managing Partner for the Americas, and prior to that at CARANA Corporation, where he served as President up until the company’s merger with Palladium. He has designed and managed hundreds of millions in development programs, including the recently launched $250 million USAID Catalyze program, which works to leverage $2 billion worth of private financing into underinvested sectors in frontier markets. He has a unique combination of deep technical skills and successful experience in corporate development, having led M&A processes, reviewed impact investment deals, and created investment attraction organizations. Prior to CARANA, he served in various roles in corporate development and strategy at SRI International, Arbros Communications, and the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee. He is part of the USAID Administrator’s Advisory Committee on Private and Voluntary Aid, is co-chair of the Society for International Development’s Finance Committee, and recently served as Vice Chairman of the Council of International Development Companies and on the Board of the Private Sector Council of consulting and technology companies serving the USG market. Sedaca is originally from Argentina, has worked and lived in El Salvador and Ecuador, and has conducted assignments in more than 40 countries. A native Spanish speaker, he received degrees in Economics and Political Science at Gordon College and a Masters in Science from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service

---

Mary Ann Walker has thirty years of experience building, operating, and scaling businesses. Walker founded and served as chief executive officer of Walker Advertising LLC, a leading direct-response advertising agency serving the US Latino market and legal industry. She continues to sit on the board of directors. During her tenure, Walker Advertising LLC invested more than $23 million in national media annually, reaching consumers through its brands Los Defensores and The Defenders at 1-800-THELAW2. Her bilingual and bicultural background provides Walker with the foundation for a deep understanding of the market.

Walker serves as the managing partner in her national law firm, WH Legal Group LLP, as a non-attorney. She is also a lecturer at Loyola Law School, the National Trial Lawyers Association, and Marymount University. In addition, she serves on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Harbor Area and Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, California, as well as on the advisory board for the Woodrow Wilson Center Latin American Program in Washington, DC. In March of 2019, Walker was tapped to serve on the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez Delegation of The National Delegation on Immigration Policy by the Pacific Council of Los Angeles, which is charged with reviewing immigration policy.

Walker is a graduate of Webster University in Los Angeles where she is a member of Delta Mu Delta, the international honor society in business administration. She attended Harvard Business School’s executive education programs on private equity and venture capital and Harvard’s Women on Boards program.

---

Jenny Willier Murphy is president of Conjunto Directivo at the Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Américas. She has over twenty years of experience in the rule of law with experience working in various capacities for United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the US State Department, and international development agencies such as Creative Associates International. As a government official, she has provided technical assistance to US embassies in various countries through her work at USAID and in the US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

At the State Department, Murphy worked in the US mission to the Organization of American States (OAS) policy section, where she was assigned to the hemispheric security division. As a senior advisor on the rule of law, she advised USAID missions around the world on judicial and legal reform, particularly in regard to improving judicial administration and access to justice. She also collaborated with the donor community and coordinated US government agencies’ efforts related to the funding, design, and programming of foreign assistance for the rule of law with the OAS, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, and US Judicial Conference’s International Judicial Relations Committee. 

Murphy also advised various Latin American countries on judicial and legal-reform matters including the implementation of new criminal procedure codes and issues related to judicial administration. She earned an undergraduate degree in international relations and Spanish at the University of Virginia and a juris doctor degree at the American University Washington College of Law.

---

NTAG Coordinators

Photo Credit: Martin Falbisoner