Carina Silva, New President of the GCL Alumni Network
Carina Silva, GCL 2020 from Uruguay, is the new President of the GCL Alumni Network. She is joined by Camilo Santa (GCL 2015, Colombia), Karen Dupont (GCL 2021, Mexico), Gustavo Rodriguez (GCL 2019, Mexico), and Jose Benages (GCL 2009, Bolivia). The new Board was elected in November 2021 by all GCL alumni, across the different generations and countries, that have been part of the Global Competitiveness Leadership Program.
Every three years, the GCL Alumni Network elects a new executive board to carry out initiatives that will strengthen the network and promote the GCL program mission across Latin America. GCL Alumni can nominate themselves or others, and all candidates have the opportunity to present their proposals to the broad community of alumni before the election.
LALP chatted with Carina as she reflected on her GCL experience and her goals for the next three years as the President of the GCL Alumni Network.
In my case, as a GCL 2020 alumna, I had the opportunity to live the latest in-person experience at Georgetown, so I decided to run for the Board to enhance the impact and potential of the GCL Alumni network. This network is a vast community of great leaders in the region that has been able to achieve the development of great projects across the region, making this program one of the most sought-after programs for university graduated emergent leaders from the region.
The impact GCL and its network has had on Carina motivated her to become president:
GCL in my case allowed me not only to enhance the impact of the educational project that I brought to GCL, but also to forge new direct alliances with Georgetown. In particular, I had the opportunity to work with 5 Georgetown undergrad students, who joined Plan Ceibal as interns during the summer of 2020, leveraging the project and providing support for the educational community in Uruguay. In this sense, the GCL network must promote the continuous growth and development of this Alumni network that maximizes the possibilities through its greatest resource, ourselves. Collaborative networks are one of the great moving forces for change in the region.
Carina is eager to work with the new Board of Directors:
The GCL network has been for me a vector of radical change, for the achievement of project objectives at the local level, so I understand the great possibilities that await the GCL Alumni Network as we move forward. This is the moment to do it. This is not only a personal vision, but when we met for the first time with the new Board of Directors something had become clear, we all want and seek the same from this network, it will strongly promote its impact in Latin America.”
Learn about the new Executive Board of the GCL Alumni Network
Carina Silva (GCL 2020, Uruguay)- President of the GCL Alumni Network
Carina has a degree in Sociology (FCS-UdelaR), a Master's in Innovation Management, and a Specialist in Technology Management (FING-UdelaR). She has vast experience in promoting strategic alliances for the development of collaborative projects in different areas. Dedicated to the implementation of education, innovation and entrepreneurship project, she has led educational projects that have impacted more than 90,000 students throughout the country and more than 3,000 primary and secondary school teachers. She is currently the Head of the Project Laboratory at Plan Ceibal (Public Agency for Educational Innovation in Uruguay) in which she is dedicated to validating, evaluating, and incubating, and scaling innovative educational projects with the use of technology throughout the country.
Camilo Santa (GCL 2015, Colombia)
Camilo has been recognized at the Global Finance Summit for Nature in Edinburgh in 2020, and by the New York Forest Declaration at the UN General Assembly in 2019, for his innovations in Impact Investing for the Regenerative Economy. He co-founded Sustainable Investment Banking for the Pacific Alliance in 2017 after having been the Focal Point for Latin America in the World Bank's Multi-Donor Fund - Connect Climate,, and has acted as Director for Colombia of the Impact Investment Fund. of the Nobel Peace Prize Prof. Muhammad Yunus. He is currently part of the Natural Capital Lab of the IDB in Washington DC, from where he advises regional governments and the private sector on financial innovation for the regeneration of biodiversity and action against climate change.
Gustavo Rodriguez (GCL 2019, Mexico)
Gustavo Rodriguez, has an MBA from Universidad Anáhuac and was part of the 2019 generation of GCL from Georgetown University. He has studied Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and has a Law Degree from the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, UNAM, and studies in Latin American Labor Law from the University of Salamanca in Spain. He has held various positions in the private sector, the last being as a corporate lawyer for GT Global in Mexico. He supports entrepreneurship and social impact projects as a consultant and advisor to various institutions, such as Fundación Fleishman (Mexico) and Codeis (Ecuador). Likewise, independently, he is the founder of Rafik, an online legal services startup that seeks to democratize access across Latin America.
Karen DuPont (GCL 2021, Mexico)
Karen Du Pont, is a physician and clinical researcher from the University of Guanajuato. He has developed her knowledge of open government and innovation through courses and diplomas from the IDB, IDEO, Apolitical, The GovLab, OEA, and Tecnológico de Monterrey. She is a member of the GCL 2021 generation from Georgetown University. She has done work on reproductive health and family planning, nosocomial infections, and hand washing. Recently, she was the coordinator of the Protocol and the Prevention Strategy for COVID-19 of the Judicial Power of the State of Guanajuato and Director of LAB León, public and social innovation laboratory of the city of León. Currently, she works as coordinator of the School of Transformation of the startup CIMA de Tecmilenio.
Jose A. Benages (GCL 2009, Bolivia)
José Alvaro Benages Salinas, has been married to Gabriela Justiniano for 19 years and together they have two beautiful children: Adrián, 15, and Micaela, 11. He is a civil engineer by profession, which allowed him to supervise road construction in his country, Bolivia, for a period of 8 years. He ventured into the industrial sector, and that led him to realize the importance of economic development in his country, which is why he pursued and completed an MBA degree. His time in the GCL program changed his mental paradigm, so upon return to his country, he decided to do his share to help activate positive change in his community. As such, he has dedicated himself to better education, which led him to pursue a Master in Technological Higher Education from the UAGRM. José Alvaro has been part of the founding team of the University for Development and Innovation-UDI. The most valuable achievement for him is to have coordinated the construction of the University. The UDI is where he took his first steps as a professor and served in a diversity of positions, from Instructional Advisor, Postgraduate Coordinator, Economic Vice-Rector and Pro-Rector; and not necessarily in that order.