Maurício Vieira is an assistant professor and the chair on countering and preventing illicit trade and transnational organized crime at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. He is also a research associate at the Nationalities Observatory and the Laboratory on the Study of Conflict and Violence, both at Ceará State University in Brazil. Vieira obtained his Ph.D. in international politics and conflict resolution from the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

Fernando Vieira is the external affairs director at Philip Morris Brasil, a position he has held since 2016. He leads the affiliate’s efforts in areas including communications, government relations, science, sustainability, fiscal affairs, and illicit trade prevention. Prior to this position, Vieira was Philip Morris’ external affairs director managing Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay from 2014 to 2016.

Angélica Durán-Martínez is an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and a co-director of its global studies Ph.D. program. Her research focuses on organized crime, political, and criminal violence, and the state in Latin America. Durán-Martínez is the author of The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops, and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Gretta González is the general manager of shared rides at Uber Mexico, the company’s fifth most important market and she is the first woman to head a Transport Network Company (TNC) globally. She has extensive experience in customer service, having served as the director of customer service at Virgin, where she led the brand to deliver performance results above the national market standard. González serves as a mentor at Vital Voices Chapter Mexico, where she supports female entrepreneurs to achieve their goals.

Charles Seville is the cohead of the New York-based Americas Sovereign team, and lead analyst on the United States and Mexico. He is also responsible for sovereign ratings and analysis across North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Charles joined Fitch in 2006, with responsibility for the analysis of credits in the Middle East and Africa. Charles then moved on to cover sovereign risk in Emerging Europe and was Fitch’s lead analyst for Russia and the Ukraine.

Clare Seelke came to Congressional Research Service in 2003 as a presidential management fellow (PMF). CRS is a non-partisan research agency that serves the members and committees of Congress and their staffs, located in the Library of Congress. As part of her fellowship, she completed rotations with the State Department in the Dominican Republic and with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington DC. She currently focuses on Mexico, Venezuela, and Central America, with a special focus on security issues and migration.

Monica Ramirez de Arellano is the M&A Lead at Blockchain.com. Prior to this, she was a senior manager at Restaurant Brands International (RBI) in Miami. She graduated with an MBA/MA from The Wharton School and The Lauder Institute in 2020. Previously, she was an attorney and banker in New York. She earned a JD from NYU School of Law, and an AB from Princeton University. Originally from Puerto Rico, she is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Francisco Martinez is senior associate at AS/COA Miami. His work helps facilitate dialogue between the private sector in Miami and the public sector in Latin America, with the ultimate goal of promoting economic prosperity and social development in the region. He also leads the Young Professionals of the Americas (YPA)—the young leaders initiative of COA in Miami.

Lucas Ferraz is secretary of foreign trade at the Brazilian Ministry of Economy. He is an engineer and holds a PhD in economics from Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. He was a senior consultant in international trade for the World Bank and UNCTAD and is one of the coordinators of the Brazilian Chair at the World Trade Organization.