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.”

Watch more videos of the Symposium.