Opened in 1985, Cerrejón is an active open-pit coal mine in Colombia valued at nearly $3 billion as of 2021. Despite its importance to the Colombian economy, Ricardo Gonzalez’s concern when he began working there was the employees and the surrounding community. As part of the mine’s environment, health and industrial safety division, Gonzalez focused […]
Features Region: Latin America
Santiago Noriega – Spectrum Brands
For a company to grow even a little during the COVID-19 economic slump is an accomplishment. A company growing over 20 percent calls for a closer look. So, turn the lens to a home-essentials company headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin. According to Santiago Noriega, Spectrum Brands exceeded sales expectations when its 2021 fiscal year ended in […]
Livio Vicco – Avon
Livio Vicco remembers a painful experience from life on the road. He was conducting a trade visit during a freezing wet winter in Poland, far from the warmth of the sun-soaked home office in Colombia. Unprepared, he walked the slushy streets in his fancy leather shoes, soaking his feet and chilling them to the bone. […]
Gustavo Mondragon – Stanhome Mexico
When Gustavo Mondragon joined Stanhome Mexico five years ago, the direct sales company had a 75 percent local area delivery accuracy rate. Since implementing a program he calls “last mile consolidation”—which bolsters communication, improves efficiency and reduces transportation costs—Stanhome Mexico has upped its local area delivery accuracy rate to 99 percent. As for the remaining […]
Rafael Aguirre
Throughout Rafael Aguirre’s life, his career and all of the projects he’s developed have been a study of form following function. Coming from a long line of engineers, that’s no surprise. Tinkering with problems, creating efficiencies and solving operational challenges is in his blood, he says. At the tender age of 16, his family supported […]
Alejandro Solis – Grupo Dival
There’s more to Hooters than meets the eye, although most patrons of the restaurant chain would admit to being drawn to the sight of waitresses in revealing attire. Alejandro Solis certainly recognizes the visual aspect as a selling point, but as the holding company he leads, Grupo Dival, expands the iconic Hooters brand as well […]
Alimentos MAC
Due to its excellent Caribbean location, the Dominican Republic has the presence of different and world-renowned chains of fast food restaurants. This led to the McDonald’s chain of fast food arriving in this country in 1996, initially located in Santo Domingo, capital of the island nation. A year later, taking advantage of the expansion model that […]
Ricardo Muza —Pfizer Andean Region
It’s a long stretch from his office in Santiago, Chile, to Quito, Ecuador–over 2,350 miles to the north. But Ricardo Muza, legal director of Pfizer’s Andean Region for the past seven years, has a way of finding common ground between the operations of those far-apart locations as well as in the other three countries in […]
Pedro Frade – HSBC
Diversity has many meanings, and the general counsel for HSBC Brazil Investment Bank and HSBC Group Argentina thinks every single one is important. When Pedro Frade discusses workplace diversity, he’s not just talking euphemistically about employees who are of mixed ethnicity or a certain gender. Likewise, he’s not just using the term in that other, […]
Pablo Urrego – Renault Sofasa
In 1980s Bogota, you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a Renault 4. An economy hatchback first produced in 1966, it remains one of the French automaker’s most iconic models. In Colombia, as in other places, it was everywhere—a symbol of upward mobility in a country where economic stability was rarely a given. So when […]
