Panelists

• Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vice President & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Panama
• Katia Bouazza, Managing Director, Head of Latin America Global Banking, HSBC
• Patricia Menéndez-Cambó, Vice Chair, Greenberg Traurig
• Susan Segal, CEO & President, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (moderator)

While there’s been some progress on gender parity, the pace of change has not been fast enough, agreed a panel of female leaders at the 2018 Council of the Americas Symposium. One way to speed up the pace is to address implicit bias both in the workforce and at home, and to involve everyone. “Gender is not an issue just for women. Gender is an issue of development, gender is an issue of societies, gender is an issue of the world advancing faster and advancing further,” said Panamanian Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, who successfully pushed for a new law in Panama that requires women to fill at least 30 percent of board seats in public institutions. Having men buy into the importance of diversity is also a key element, said HSBC’s Katia Bouazza. “The worst thing that could happen right now is for men to retreat.”

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Panelists

• Carlos Mario Giraldo Moreno, CEO, Grupo Éxito
• Claudio Muruzábal, President, SAP Latin America & The Caribbean
• Alfredo Zolezzi Garretón, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, AIC Technologies; President, Alfredo Zolezzi Foundation
• Wendy Woods, Global Leader – Social Impact Practice, The Boston Consulting Group (moderator)

What responsibilities do businesses have as social actors? “Purpose is ‘the why’ an organization exists,” said the Boston Consulting Group’s Wendy Woods, who moderated the third panel of the 2018 Council of the Americas Symposium. In her opening remarks, she cited evidence showing a company’s financial success positively correlates with its environmental and social performance. As an example of how Colombian retailer Grupo Éxito lives out its purpose, CEO Carlos Mario Giraldo Moreno focused on nutrition through his company’s Gen Cero Strategy, citing how the childhood malnutrition rate in the country has dropped from 14 to 10 percent in the last five years.

As head of a tech company, SAP Latin America & the Caribbean President Claudio Muruzábal highlighted entrepreneurship. He gave the example of his company’s One Billion Lives initiative that encourages employees to devise startups that will improve the lives of others. Measurement is important, he said, but “what is more important is changing the culture.” AIC’s Alfredo Zolezzi Garretón talked about the value of partnerships, highlighting how AIC partners with Airbus to put technology in schools in low-income communities. In the future, he is looking to develop socially beneficial apps, technology he says that is ultimately “an excuse” to see transformational change.

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Panelists

• Ana Paula Assis, General Manager, IBM Latin America
• Cesar Cernuda, President, Microsoft Latin America
• Gabriel Di Lelle, Vice President of Innovation and Digital Transformation, Bancolombia S.A.
• Fernando Iraola, MD/Head of Latin America Corporate Banking & Global Transaction Services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Vernon Murray, President Latin America, Emerson Automation Solutions
• Gabriela Frías, Anchor, Portafolio Global, CNN en Español (moderator)

Forget technological revolution: social skills will be—and in many cases already are—what drive digital culture and innovation in the future. “Empathy is going to be a critical element in what we teach people. At the end of the day, if we don’t have a clear understanding of the impact we have on others, it’s going to be impossible to create an inclusive society,” said IBM’s Ana Paula Assis on the second panel, moderated by Gabriela Frías of CNN en Español, of the 2018 Council of the Americas Symposium. Fernando Iraola of Bank of America Merrill Lynch underscored Assis’ point, adding, “This will be huge in hiring. Technological skills will be a given. What will set you apart are the social skills you have.”

Microsoft Latin America’s Cesar Cernuda stressed the importance of trust between users and companies. “Don’t be obsessed about your P&L, your revenues,” he said. “Be obsessed about your customers.” Emerson’s Vernon Murray talked about a digital evolution, as opposed to a revolution. “In the past, it was about getting the expert to the data,” he said. “Now it’s about getting the data to the expert.” Gabriel Di Lelle discussed how Bancolombia is working to meet young users where they are, including developing user-friendly 30-second terms and conditions videos and creating a separate mobile-only banking system that already counts 1 million users in Colombia. He also emphasized a need to bring moral standards to tech and data management. “Doctors have the Hippocratic Oath,” he said. “We need the same thing in tech today.”

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Welcome Remarks

• Susan Segal, President & CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas

Panelists

• Fernando González, CEO, CEMEX
• João Miranda, CEO, Votorantim S.A
• Fabio Schvartsman, CEO, Vale
• Blanca Treviño, President & CEO, Softtek
• Andres Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation and Chairman AS/COA (moderator)

The first panel of the 2018 Council of the Americas Symposium convened five CEOs for a discussion on global growth, transformation, and expansion. AS/COA Chairman and AES Corporation President and CEO Andres Gluski asked panelists to share the biggest challenges they’ve faced. Fabio Schvartsman, the 2018 BRAVO Business Awards CEO of the Year, talked about the difficulty of coming to Vale as a mining industry outsider, saying he quickly took steps to gather insights from those around him. CEMEX CEO Fernando González emphasized the need to maintain a consistent identity. “We produce cement using household waste,” said González. “We are contributing to the green economy.”

As head of a Mexican IT company, Softtek CEO Blanca Treviño wants to ensure the country is known as a technology hub. Part of this involves attracting the best talent by collaborating with universities and helping employees adapt. While it can be difficult to compete with the Facebooks, Googles, and Ubers of the world, she said, the solution is to create a good work environment. Asked about black swans, Votorantim’s João Miranda said the trend toward creating barriers will ultimately prove inefficient. “We are about to see the largest transformation in various areas—of knowledge, of production, and of human behavior, all of which point to the direction of more equality, less consumption, more sharing, etcetera.” Schvartsman said he and his fellow panelists are all accustomed to change and that the best response is flexibility. “In a challenging environment, the advantage we all have is that we are all Latin Americans,” he said. “We know how to deal with uncertainty.”

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Speakers

• Luis Alberto Moreno, President, IDB
• Andrés Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation; Chairman, AS/COA

Latin America can't miss the digital revolution the same way it missed industrial revolution in the past, said International Development Bank (IDB) President Luis Alberto Moreno. His keynote at the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium focused on the ways public-private partnerships can help reduce the region's digital and development gap. "Governments know they will not be able to compete and generate the jobs of the future if they don't improve infrastructure and productivity. But governments also know they cannot close this gap on their own. They know they need resources, talent, and the ingenuity that is the basis of the private sector," he said. 

Moreno also presented the IDB's new initiative for the private sector, BID Invest, which helps companies to fully participate in sustainable development while expanding their business in Latin America. He talked about how the bank gave multilateral assistance in Chile to allow the private sector to build its first large-scale solar farm in the country. "We have the local knowledge and the experience to make these sort of bets," he said, inviting business leaders to work with the BID, as the development bank is known in Spanish, when pursuing to push into underserved markets.

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Welcoming Remarks:

• Susan Segal, President & CEO, AS/COA

Panel Conversation:

• Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, OECD
• Alexander Mora, Minister of Foreign Trade, Costa Rica
• Andrés Gluski, President & CEO, The AES Corporation; Chairman, AS/COA (moderator)

Business leaders need to be aware of Latin America's core inequality problems and should address inclusiveness issues, as much as productivity ones, to boost growth in the region. That is how OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría framed the conversation about sustainable growth in Latin America at the 2017 COA Symposium. Gurría pointed out that Latin America has only 60 percent of broadband internet coverage, compared to 90 percent among OECD member countries, which widens the inequality gap in the region. Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Trade Alexander Mora talked about the country's goal to join the OECD and transform itself into a research and development center, growing beyond the tourism industry. 

AS/COA's Susan Segal opened the event before the panel saying the organization's CEO Forums have been discussing how business leaders and other sectors are adapting to the digital age and the importance of guiding business toward sustainable growth.

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Speakers:

• Jorge Becerra, Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group 
• Fernando González, CEO, CEMEX
• Damián Scokin, CEO, Despegar.com
• César Cernuda, President, Microsoft Latin America (moderator)

Technology is about changing the culture of a company, said Microsoft's César Cernuda on a panel about how the private sector is adapting to the digital age at the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium. The question is not about the "what" or the "why", but the "how" and "when," he added. Cernuda talked with the panelists about their leadership experience in transforming business models in Latin America. Fernando González from CEMEX said his company has adapted to the new digital environment by changing the way it makes business deals with the Latin American market. Despegar.com's Damián Scokin said his first challenge as a CEO is to make the entire company feel it needs to evolve. Jorge Becerra explained how the situation is changing in Latin America and said that innovation often comes from emerging markets and not necessarily countries like the United States. Becerra also noted that large corporations are not as successful in incorporating disruptive technologies and are starting to understand they might not be able to do this on their own.

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Speakers:

• Katia Bouazza, Managing Director, Head of Latin America Capital Financing HSBC Securities, Inc. 
• Andrés Conesa, CEO, Aeromexico 
• Fernando Iraola, Managing Director, Head of Latin America Coporate Banking and Global Transaction Services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch 
• James P. Scriven, CEO, Inter-American Investment Corporation 
• Xavier Serbiá, Host, CNN Dinero (moderator)

CNN Dinero's Xavier Serbiá kicked off this  2017 BRAVO Symposium and Business Awards panel by asking about the current challenges for investment in Latin America. Fernando Iraola said the political instability in the region is his biggest concern. Katia Bouazza pointed out the future of the region also depends on longer-term issues, such as infrastructure and social development. Protectionism has also changed the context for the region from here forward. Aeromexico's Andrés Conesa talked about the importance of the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it"the most dynamic worldwide in terms of travel" and talked of the risks for the American economy should the North American Free Trade Agreement end. James P. Scriven reflected on the wave of populism rising in the world and its importance for companies and governments to address that before moving forward with their growth strategies. Scriven talked about the resistence against globalization in developed economies, where people feel they have not have lived the benefits of globalization.

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The president of Microsoft Latin America, César Cernuda, spoke about Latin America's digital economy on the sidelines of the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards. Cernuda said the region, with a population of 644 million, has the ability to generate a lot of information when it comes to digital currency.

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The digital economy is a double-edged sword, says Aeromexico CEO Andrés Conesa, but "in the end it's a net benefit for everyone." In a sideline interview at the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards, Conesa shared insights on the effects of technology on the travel industry.

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China aims to be the world's leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 and, as an increasingly important trade partner for Latin America, the region needs to be able to match the sophistication of its Asian counterpart. In an interview on the sidelines of the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards, IBM Latin America General Manager Ana Paul Assis says, over time, the region will increasingly adopt artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other disruptive technology.

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"Digital technology is what is enabling new business models to be invented," said CEMEX CEO Fernando González about Latin America's digital economy. Speaking on the sidelines of the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards, he added that: "At the same time new business models are invented, some others are destroyed."

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The digital economy will have a forceful impact and we'll have to know how to react to it, said Ultrapar CEO Thilo Mannhardt in this interview on the sidelines of the 2017 Council of the Americas Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards.

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Each year in Miami, Council of the Americas' Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards bring together leaders from the private sector, government, and civil society to discuss major challenges and opportunities facing the Americas. This recap is of our 2016 program, where influential thought leaders gathered to share insights on the region, as well as celebrate those who have made a major impact on the Western Hemisphere.

Please join us on Friday, November 3, 2017 for the 2017 COA Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards.