Category
Speaker
Mexico Energy Forum Preliminary Speakers 2018
Leonardo Beltrán
Deputy Minister of Planning and Energy Transition for the Ministry of Energy
Leonardo Beltrán holds a Master’s in public administration in international development from Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in economics from ITAM. He also studied law at UNAM. Before his appointment as Deputy Minister of Planning and Energy Transition in December 2012, Beltrán worked as Director of International Negotiations and Director General of Information and Energy Studies for the Ministry of Energy from 2005 to 2012. He also worked as a consultant for the IDB, the World Bank, the OECD and the UNIDO.
Oscar Silva
Head of Global Strategy Group for KPMG Mexico
Silva, a senior strategy consultant for industries such as automotive, the wholesale electricity market, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, IT and mining. has cumulated 17 years of professional experience, specialized in advising investors in business strategy development, market entry, M&As and economic impact analysis. Silva works closely with board members, managers and entrepreneurs toward sustainable growth and the transformation of international companies through global multidisciplinary teams.
Gerardo Cervantes
Energy Manager and Commercial Officer of Enel Green Power Mexico
Cervantes’ electricity expertise spans over 10 years. As Commercial Officer for Mexico and Central America for Enel Green Power, he heads the region’s commercial activities and coordinates the company’s efforts in implementing its Open Power vision. Prior to joining Enel, Cervantes worked as Business Manager for Gas Natural Fenosa in Mexico and as Fuels Manager for EDF Énergies Nouvelles, also in Mexico. Cervantes is an electrical mechanical engineer from Mexico’s ITESM and completed studies in top-level management at Barcelona’s IPADE and ESADE.
Ernesto García
Project Finance Manager of EDF Énergies Nouvelles Mexico.
García holds a science degree in chemical engineering from La Salle University and a Master’s degree in business and economy from Mexico’s ITESM. He worked for more than 18 years in the banking sector for international institutions, performing a variety of activities including corporate banking and project finance. His experience includes both commercial and development banking. García joined EDF Énergies Nouvelles in 2017 to support development and financing activities for the company’s renewable projects in Mexico.
José Aguilar
Principal at Vive Energía
Aguilar has worked in energy companies such as Enron, ENGIE and Acciona for over 10 years, managing a diverse portfolio of products and services including natural gas transportation and distribution, cogeneration, combined cycle generation, CNG and renewables. From 2008 to 2012, he worked as Deputy Director General of Investment Banking at NAFIN, structuring more than US$1 billion in investments. He then joined IDB’s IFC and created Vive Energía in 2012. Aguilar holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from ITAM and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Marian Aguirre
Energy Finance Vice President of Bancomext
Aguirre has over eight years of experience in project finance for renewable and clean energy projects in her capacity as Energy Finance Vice President of Bancomext. Throughout 2017, Aguirre oversaw the successful financial closing of the first six long-term electricity auction-awarded projects and several self-supply projects. Her financed renewable energy portfolio exceeds MX$30 billion. Aguirre holds an economics degree from ITESM and a Master’s degree in economy and finance from the Universitat de Catalunya.
Salomón Amkie
Vice President Head of Power and Utilities of Citibanamex
Amkie was Scotiabank Global Banking and Market’s Corporate Banking Associate Director from 2007 to 2010 and now leads the power and utilities coverage efforts for Citi’s Corporate and Investment Banking Division in Mexico. He joined Citi in July 2011, in New York, where he worked on numerous advisory, fixed income and equity transactions in the US, always focused on the energy sector. Amkie holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Mexico’s ITAM and an MBA from the Darden School of Business Administration in the US.
Guillermo García
President Commissioner of CRE
García was appointed President Commissioner of CRE on April 28, 2016. He has over 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, technical and economic regulation, and public policy design and evaluation. He headed the technical group that successfully negotiated the constitutional changes for the Energy Reform and also conducted the supporting research for the Energy Reform efforts of 2008. García holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from ITAM, and has postgraduate courses at the universities of Oxford, Harvard and George Washington.
Eduardo Reyes
Leading Partner, Power and Utilities at Strategy&, a PwC company
Leading Partner, Power and Utilities, at Strategy&, a PwC company Reyes has over 12 years of consulting experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has developed projects related to national energy planning, growth market strategies, business model design, due diligence and post-deal services. He worked for 10 years in the Strategy& operations office at PwC Spain. Reyes holds an MBA from ESADE Business School, a Master’s in risk management from Francisco de Vitoria University and is also an industrial engineer from Universidad Anahuac Mexico, where he has been a lecturer.
Natalía García
Director General of eVOLT Energy Trading
García is the Founder and Director General of eVOLT Energy Trading, a company that is developing the first private bilateral OTC wholesale energy marketplace, a specialized trading venue providing the necessary tools, end-to-end solutions and capital markets infrastructure to develop the energy market. She previously developed capital markets instruments, services and infrastructure in London and New York, and later joined Mexico’s venture capital. Natalia holds a law degree from ITAM and an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Enrique Gímenez
Director General of Fisterra Energy México
Giménez has over 25 years of experience in the international electricity sector, starting as an energy consultant at Arthur Andersen. He has been responsible for the creation and development of electricity commercializing companies for markets under liberalization with companies such as Enron Corporation, Centrica and now with Fisterra Energy. Giménez holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Universidad Comercial de Deusto, an MBA from Manchester Business School and an Executive Senior Program from IESE.
Hans-Joachim Kohlsdorf
Managing Partner at Energy to Market
Kohlsdorf has been the Managing Partner at Energy to Market, a company focused on supplying services in the Mexican wholesale electricity market, since June 2014. He has actively participated in structuring projects that take advantage of the opportunities untapped by the Energy Reform as a partner at ZIMMA and was also the operating partner at Advent International. He started his professional career at Siemens in Colombia, and was President of Siemens Región Andina and Director General of Siemens México y Centro América.
Alejandro Ledesma
Director of Institutional Relations at SUMEX
Ledesma started his government service in 1994 at the Ministry of Energy’s Directorate General of Policy and Development of Power Sources and held key positions in its Legal Affairs Unit between 1997 and 2007. In 2007, he joined CRE as an adviser to several commissioners, successively becoming Deputy Director and Principal Officer of its Executive Office. He joined SUMEX as Director of Institutional Relations in July 2016. He holds a law degree from UAM and a Master’s in federal public administration from INAP.
Jorge Sandoval
Senior Associate at Goodrich, Riquelme y Asociados
Sandoval is a Senior Associate at Goodrich, Riquelme y Asociados, one of the highest-ranked law firms in Mexico. With over 15 years of experience, Sandoval specializes in international transactions, oil and gas, renewable energy, foreign investment and international trade. Sandoval’s current practice includes consulting for power generation companies, traders, service providers and technology suppliers with respect to their participation in the Mexican energy sector and advising companies on their interaction with the Mexican government.
José Zambrano
Co-Founder and CEO of Galt Energy
Zambrano studied a BS in civil engineering at UT Austin and later worked in operations consulting. Since co-founding Galt Energy in 2013, Zambrano has led the company’s growth to over 80 employees in five offices nationwide and over 1,500 installed systems, of which half have been financed by its own fund. Zambrano actively participates as speaker and panelist in events such as renewable energy conferences, entrepreneurship summits and TedX talks.
Mikael Kaivola
Managing Director of CITRUS
Kaivola is the Managing Director of CITRUS, a company based in Mexico City that specializes in developing solar heat solutions for industrial processes (SHIP). As an international sales and marketing executive with close to two decades of experience in product portfolio and project management, Kaivola has held a number of key roles at market-leading companies, in both the IT and medical industries, including HP and Sendoline AB. He has spent most of his professional life in Sweden and has resided in Mexico since 2014.
Juan Manuel Ávila
Director General of Top Energy
Ávila has been President of COPARMEX Aguascalientes since 2014 and a recurrent speaker at energy-related conferences and forums. As Director General and Co-Founder of Top Energy Mexico since 2013, Ávila specializes in PV distributed generation projects in the EPC and PPA niches. Top Energy created CRE’s Solar Calculator and participated in the drafting of CRE’s Distributed Generation Interconnection Manual. Ávila holds a corporate management degree from ITESM and a post-graduate degree in electricity market design and energy integration.
André Von Frantzius
Commercial Director of Grupo DESMEX
Von Frantzius has 12 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. He first joined Grupo DESMEX as Renewable Energy Department Manager, specialized in energy efficiency and overseeing franchise expansion before becoming Commercial Director of the group. Von Frantzius is an Industrial and Systems Engineer from the University of Bremen, Germany. Grupo DESMEX has been in Mexico for over 20 years. Its energy branch serves the residential, commercial and industrial sectors, including EPC and O&M services.
Michel Yehuda
Industrial Business Unit Director for Fluke Dominion Mexico
Yehuda has 20 years of management experience in strategy and business development for leading energy and industrial measurement solutions. His international experience includes Israel, Latin America and Europe. Prior to joining Fluke Dominion Mexico in 1998 as Industrial Sales Channel Manager, he collaborated with PEMEX on several energy-oriented projects. Michel holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and a business administration degree from Bar Ilan University in Israel.
Ana Bojorquez
Corporate Lawyer at ACCIONA Energía México
Bojorquez has over six years of experience in the infrastructure sector, focused exclusively on renewable energy matters within the electricity sector during the last three years. She joined ACCIONA Energía México in 2015 where she continually monitors Wholesale Electricity Market regulation. Bojorquez is actively involved in ACCIONA Energía México’s private and public PPA negotiations. Bojorquez graduated from ITESM, specialized in amparo at UP and finished energy law studies at ELD and regulatory law at CIDE.
Ernesto López
Vice President of Partner Projects and Ecobuilding for Schneider Electric Mexico and Central America
López has more than 35 years of experience in energy distribution and automation. He provides strategic leadership to two business units that offer the Mexican market the latest innovations, enabling energy digitalization for sustainable infrastructure. López represents the French giant in the National Confederation of Associations of Electricity Materials and Equipment Suppliers (CONACOME) and the National Chamber of Electricity Manufacturing (CANAME).
Alejandro Preinfalk
Executive Vice President Energy Management, Building Technologies and Mobility for Siemens Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
Preinfalk graduated as a telecommunications and electronics engineer in Costa Rica and received a Master’s in business administration from both Harvard Business School and Duke University. He has worked in operational and directorial positions for Siemens in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Russia and Germany. In 2016, he was appointed to his current position. Preinfalk is also Vice President of CANAME and CAMEXA.
César Hernández
Head of Planning, Institutional Relations and International Affairs Unit for the Federal Commission of Economic Competition (COFECE)
César Hernández was appointed Head of Planning, Institutional Relations and International Affairs Unit at COFECE on Dec. 1, 2017. Prior to this designation, he served as Deputy Minister of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy from 2012 to 2017 and as Head of the Legal Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Energy. Hernández also worked as Director General of Foreign Trade for the Ministry of Economy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from UNAM’s Faculty of Law, a Master of Law from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Ph.D. in law from UNAM.
Kevin Gutiérrez
Sales Vice President of the Solar Division at HUAWEI Mexico
Gutiérrez is the Sales Vice President of the Solar Division at HUAWEI in Mexico. He has over 20 years of experience in the Mexican solar market and has participated in the execution and supply of solar inverters for several utility-scale plants in the country. He now leads the introduction to the Mexican market of Huawei’s FusionSolar Smart PV Plant concept, a worldwide-leading brand in development of Network Energy Technology. Prior to joining HUAWEI, Gutiérrez was Country Manager Mexico of Ingeteam.
Dafna Siegert
Partner Power and Utilities Leader LATAM North at EY
Siegert has 16 years of experience in energy, oil and gas and power and utilities-related projects. Her work includes ESCO business strategy design, analysis and follow-up, advisory services in electricity interconnections, energy and natural gas surplus trading, management, performance and energy efficiency audits. Siegert holds a Bachelor’s degree in production engineering and postgraduate studies in international business from EAFIT University, as well as a domiciliary public services specialization from Externado University.
Carlos Michel
Principal at Fondo de Fondos
Michel has over 10 years of experience in investment banking and private equity. He manages Fondo de Fondos México Energía, where he analyzes and negotiates potential investments for the energy sector through private capital. He is also the Founder and President of The Pale Blue Dot A.C., an organization dedicated to electrifying rural communities. Michel is member of the Consejo de Administración de Inventive Power S.A. de C.V, among many other investment funds in the Mexican energy sector.
Luis Vera
Founding Partner at Vera & Asociados
Vera holds a law degree from Mexico’s Escuela Libre de Derecho, an energy and environment suma cum laude Master’s from Tulane University and a Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Besides providing socioenvironmental consulting services for energy companies, Vera is a consultant for the board of the Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) and UNDP’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), among others.
Victoria Contreras
Founder and Director General of Conecta Cultura
Contreras has a Master’s degree in international relations from the Universidad Iberoamericana and founded Conecta Cultura in 2010. She has 13 years of experience with social development projects focused on equality, human rights, diversity, mediation and social management, as well as the creation of dialogue between corporations and communities in the context of Mexico’s energy mega-projects. She has worked with TransCanada and provided representation services to the government of Alberta and the University of Calgary, among others.
Alfonso Caso
Director General of ANAF Energy
Caso is an economist from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM). In 1998, he was appointed Director General of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, a position he held until 2002. He has served as President of OPALC, a BID’s dependency. Caso is also a board member of Condumex, Altos Hornos de México, Autlán and Mexinox, among others. As acting Director General of ANAF Energy, he has been involved in more than 40 social impact assessment projects, social management plans, indigenous and tribal consultation processes and the structuring and negotiating of social management strategies in 15 states.
Gabriela Valle
Deputy Director General of Social Impact Assessments and Previous Consultations at the Ministry of Energy
Valle designed the evaluation procedures for industry programs at the Ministry of Economy in 1999. She later joined the Ministry of Social Development, evaluating its public programs. Valle was Director of Social Structure Reinforcement at the Interior Ministry and assisted in the design of the Eradication of Violence Against Women Program. She joined the Ministry of Energy in 2017. Valle holds a Master’s in economic science from the Autonomous University of Coahuila.
Francisco Estrada
Protections, Communications and Control Coordinator at at CFE Transmisión
Estrada has 28 years of experience with the productive enterprise of the state. He has held several key positions in CFE’s ranks, including Deputy Manager of Modernization and Service Entry from 2012 to 2015 and Regional Deputy Manager of Northeastern Transmission from 2015 to 2017. He has held his current position since 2017. Estrada is an Industrial Engineer in Instrumentation and Process Control from Guadalajara’s Center of Technical Industrial Training.
Jaime Hernández
Director General of CFE
Hernández was appointed Director General of CFE in August 2016. Previously, he was the commission’s CFO. His public career includes working as Director General of Programming and Budget at the Ministry of Finance. He has been a member of the governing boards of institutions such as CONACYT and CIDE among other energy, finance, education and development banking institutions. Hernández has also collaborated with the technical office of the economic cabinet and acted as coordinator of economic policy advisers for Mexico’s executive branch.