Carmen Gisela Vergara Mas is an expert in international trade law, business development, trade negotiations, integration and trade Facilitation, with more than 25 years of professional experience in Panama and across Latin America.

Before holding the position of general administrator of PROPANAMA (The National Authority for Investment and Exports Promotion of the Panamanian Government), she served at the regional level as secretary general of the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA), implementing the first and only Customs Union of the American Continent between Guatemala and Honduras. She was the first representative of Panama before the Board of Directors of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and held the position of executive director of the Federation of Chambers and Industrial Associations of Central America and the Dominican Republic (FECAICA), supporting the interests of regional industry.

In the public sector, she has served as minister of Trade and Industries, deputy minister of Foreign Trade, and national director of Investment and Export Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries of the Republic of Panama and deputy director of the first PROPANAMA Agency. In the private sector, she has served as manager of the Business Technology Accelerator of the City of Knowledge, Executing Judge of the Savings Bank (Caja de Ahorros), as a lawyer for investment portfolios and bidding processes in the firm The Private Asset Management; as a private lawyer in commercial issues and as advisor on investment and export issues, as consultant for companies and international organizations in multiple areas, such as business development, gender, exports, social responsibility, trade negotiations, competitiveness and trade facilitation, among others.

Mrs. Vergara has also represented Panama as alternate delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women of the OAS and has been a member of the non-permanent Specialized Commissions of the Organization of American States, in the areas of diversification, market access, and economic integration.

She is a member of the Arbitration Center of Panama and has served as facilitator of the Master for International Management (MIMLA) offered by the University of Thunderbird and the Technological Institute of Monterrey on international trade negotiations. She has been a speaker at multiple and diverse events and has written specialized articles for important local and international magazines and newspapers.

She has a degree in law and political science from the University of Panama, a postgraduate degree in banking and financial law from the Universidad de El Externado in Colombia and a diploma in international negotiation for Central America from the University of Santiago, Chile.