Daniel C Buchner (USA/Canada)
Dan is an award winning designer, entrepreneur, educator, and leadership facilitator. Dan held Innovator in Residence and Director of Innovation roles at the world-renowned Center for Creative Leadership. There he co-founded the iLab, a technology enabled experimental space focused on accelerating and deepening the learning of leaders. He designed and delivered custom Innovation Leadership programs for leading organizations such as Baxter Healthcare, Eaton Corporation, McDonalds, General Motors and Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. For over a decade Dan led the organizational innovation practice at Design Continuum where he worked with clients such as PepsiCo, Proctor and Gamble, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. Earlier, Dan was Vice President Design and Innovation at Moen Inc. where he designed successful consumer products that won 11 design awards. He set up Moen’s new product development process and created its Real World Lab to systematically analyze markets and discover previously undetected consumer needs.
Yolanda Mayora de Gavidia (Guatemala)
Yolanda Mayora de Gavidia devoted twenty years of her career in service to the government and people of El Salvador, culminating in her appointment as Minister of Economy between 2004 and 2008. During this period she was responsible for the launching and implementation of El Salvador´s role in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) with the United States. She supervised the management of numerous technical and financial assistance programs supported by the Salvadoran government and international sponsors that contributed to the expansion of the country´s exports by 7 percent annually during her tenure. In 2009 she was named Secretary General of SIECA, where she served until 2012. Currently she is a senior executive at Guatemala´s export and enterprise development agency, AGEXPORT.
Gerrit Nicholas (USA)
Gerrit Nicholas is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Orion Energy Partners in New York where he is focused on originating and structuring investment transactions. Prior to founding Orion Energy Partners, Mr. Nicholas spent six years as President and Managing Partner of K Road DG and K Road Power where he led the acquisition and development of renewable energy and storage companies / assets. Prior to that, Mr. Nicholas spent six years at Goldman Sachs, as Head of Environmental Commodity Sales where he led Goldman’s U.S. renewable energy and carbon market transactions, structuring commodity linked credit and equity transactions for Goldman and its clients. Previously, Mr. Nicholas headed development and merger and acquisition activities for The AES Corporation in Southern Europe. While at AES, Mr. Nicholas’ activities focused on the company’s investments in thermal and renewable generation assets, natural gas and LNG infrastructure. Mr. Nicholas received a B.A. from Harvard University cum laude, and an M.A. from The School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Onur Yener (Turkey)
Onur is a civil engineer and infrastructure development specialist with 17 years experience in urban transportation, renewable energy and healthcare investments, and PPP models. He has extensive experience in transportation planning, traffic engineering, transit operations, intelligent transportation systems and urban transportation feasibility studies. He previously worked with Parsons Brinckerhoff (WSP) in Washington, DC on urban transportation and infrastructure finance. Onur has extensive experience in project finance, project monitoring and reporting, planning, budgeting, cost control, project valuation, and M&A of transportation, energy and healthcare investments. He worked for investors, EPC contractors, lender’s technical advisors, and the World Bank in MENA region. Onur was involved in numerous privatizations of gas and electricity distribution companies and investment in renewable energy power generation projects including thermal, solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower. Onur obtained a MSc in Engineering Management, Northeastern University, Boston (USA), a M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, (USA), and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from M.E.T.U., Ankara, Turkey.
Hector Dada (Mexico)
Hector Dada is an economist, international consultant, and a private and social entrepreneur specialized in regional integration, collaborative arrangements and trade and investment instruments. He currently advises multilateral and regional organizations on economic development and competitiveness, with emphasis on the role of value chains, logistics, energy and public-private partnerships in emerging market economies. His professional career began in Mexico in 1990 as advisor to Petróleos Mexicano (PEMEX), being part of the team that negotiated the NAFTA. Héctor served as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in El Salvador from 1999 to 2003 and has served on the boards of Banco Multisectorial de Inversiones (BMI), National Investment Promotion Commission (PROESA), the Salvadoran Tourism Corporation (CORSATUR) and the National Commission on Science and Technology (CONACYT). He earned a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Oxford in the U.K. and a B.A. from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico-ITAM.
Hans Ehlis (Spain)
Hans Ehlis is a Director on the Board of Ehlis S.A., a wholesale distributor of cutlery, garden and home improvement supplies and general hardware established in Spain by his great-grandfather Reinhardt Ehlis in 1898. Ehlis S.A. carries most major national and international hardware brands and supplies over 4,000 retail outlets throughout the country, including the national “Cadena 88” and “Habitacle” chains, which it licenses to independent operators. Hans also serves as a Member of the Board and was a former Director for Eastern and Southern Europe of the Belgian Puratos Group, a major producer and distributor of products for bakery, confectionery and food service industries in over 100 countries, with total annual sales of over 2 billion Euros. He currently directs entrepreneurial ventures in the construction and energy sectors with projects in India, Argentina, Chile and Central America.