Dr. María Isabel Castillo Báez has been the ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the United States of America since April 2025. She has over 20 years of diplomatic experience, having joined the Dominican Foreign Service in 2002. She earned her doctor of law degree, Magna Cum Laude, from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Santo Domingo.

Alex González Ormerod is the founder of The Mexico Political Economist, which covers Mexican politics and policy for a global audience. Most recently he has published a book on the fall and rise of the Mexican right, La derecha no existe (pero ahí está).

Madeline Pumariega is the first female president appointed to lead one of the nation’s largest educational institutions, Miami Dade College (MDC). Adding to the historic nature of this appointment is the fact that Pumariega is an alumna of MDC.

Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández provides strategic advice to businesses and governments on political risk, public affairs, communications, and business development. Gutiérrez, a non-lawyer, has over 20 years of experience in senior government positions under five Mexican presidents in the areas of finance, trade, national security, and diplomacy. Most recently, he served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. In that position, he played a prominent role in the negotiation of the United States, Mexico, and Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Julio Vaqueiro is an award-winning journalist and anchor of Noticias Telemundo, the network’s flagship newscast.

Vaqueiro, who leads Noticias Telemundo’s special reports, breaking news and political coverage, was named main anchor in 2021. He co-anchored Noticias Telemundo’s 2024 presidential election night coverage after reporting extensively from the campaign trail. Vaqueiro appears regularly on Meet the Press to discuss U.S. politics.

Since 2019, Juan Cruz has served as a non-resident senior adviser to the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Currently, he works as a senior advisor at Dinámica Américas advising companies and organizations. In 2025, he joined the Inter-American Dialogue’s Citizen Security Task Force.

Cristina Kessel is the director of sustainability and the Sempra Infrastructure Foundation. In this role, she is responsible for implementing Sempra Infrastructure's sustainability strategy, focusing on the commitment to drive the energy transition in North America.

Cristina began her career at the Sempra family of companies in 1998, contributing to the development of natural gas storage, transportation and distribution projects in Mexico.

Aissa Boudadi is a core member of BCG's Corporate Finance & Strategy practice and a leader in the Center for CFO excellence. He has over 18 years of experience advising finance functions on large-scale finance transformations and tech-enabled change. He has worked with clients in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Aissa's specific finance expertise includes operating model and organization redesign, shared services optimization, end-to-end process redesign, and modernizing finance tech stacks.