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Thomas Brigandi
Organization: Moody's


Thomas Brigandi, CFA, is a Lead Analyst in the Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, where he is responsible for a portfolio of 34 power, toll-road, airport, port, water, wastewater, natural gas pipeline and project finance credits that collectively have over $15 billion of debt outstanding. Brigandi also serves on Moody’s public pension steering committee, ESG Americas working group and formerly served on the veteran recruiting sub-committee. Brigandi previously worked at the ~$200bn NYC Pension Fund, where he focused on energy and natural resources and reported directly to the chief investment officer. Brigandi is a Board Director of the roughly 12,000 investment professional member CFA Society New York (CFANY), the largest CFA Institute Society globally. Brigandi, the CFA Institute Inaugural Global Outstanding Young Leader and CFANY’s 2016 Benjamin Graham Distinguished Service Award recipient, has organized 89 CFA Society conferences globally that were attended in-person by over 16,000 investment professionals. These events featured over 400 senior asset owner and investment consultant speakers who represent organizations that collectively oversee or advise on more than $72 trillion in fiduciary assets, in addition to over 200 senior asset manager speakers who represent firms that collectively manage in excess of $30 trillion in assets. Brigandi, the founder of CFANY’s Asset Owner Series, Emerging and Frontier Market Series, Investment Employment Outlook and Professional Development Series, Putting Beneficiaries First Series and Global Infrastructure Conference Series, leads a team of over 500 investment professional CFA Society volunteers globally. While serving as the Director of Global Volunteers of the American Foundation for African Children’s Education, Brigandi organized the NASDAQ Closing Bell Ceremony on September 23, 2011, hosted for the President of Sierra Leone. Brigandi maintains over 13,000 connections ‎on LinkedIn and holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance, Accounting and Economics from the Macaulay Honors College (MHC) at the City University of New York. Brigandi received the college’s inaugural Alumni Pioneer Award and serves on the MHC Foundation Board of Directors as Treasurer.


Ivonne Cuello
Organization: LAVCA


Ivonne Cuello is the CEO at the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA), where she heads the organizational direction and strategy. Ivonne is also the lead point of engagement with members and key private capital industry leaders and represents the association at important industry gatherings. Ivonne has worked at LAVCA since 2014 and during that time she has spearheaded the organization’s member and investor relations activities and work on public policy, including production of the LAVCA Scorecard (a ranking of the PE/VC environment in key markets). She also handled the creation and management of LAVCA | MIT Inside Private Equity, Deal Making in Latin America, a private 4-day intensive course lead by MIT faculty and 10 leading Managing Directors and Partners from PE firms active in the region. Ivonne is often cited in regional and global press outlets as a source on private capital in Latin America. Prior to joining LAVCA, Ivonne was Director of Entrepreneurship at ANDI (Asociacion Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia), a private sector organization in Colombia with over 1,100 members. In this role she headed and launched their Entrepreneurship Program called ANDI del Futuro with 300 high potential entrepreneurs. She also built the National Mentor and Investment Angel platform for the program, with the support of MIT and C-Level Executives and HNWI. Ivonne previously worked at Proexport Colombia, a government investment agency where she liaised with private equity investors from the US, Canada, the UK, and Asia. In addition, she collaborated with the Ministry of Finance and a local development bank in an effort to enhance the regulatory framework for private equity in Colombia. Master of Science, Global Management, Université Paris-Dauphine Bachelor of Arts, Economics, Universidad de los Andes


Sammy Suzuki
Organization: AllianceBernstein


Sammy Suzuki, CFA, is Portfolio Manager of Strategic Core Equities at AllianceBernstein (AB). He has been managing the Emerging Markets Strategic Core portfolio since its inception in July 2012 and the Global, International and US portfolios since 2015. The Strategic Core platform that he co-founded has grown to over $5B in assets. Sammy has managed portfolios for over 13 years and emerging-markets portfolios for a decade. From 2010 to 2012 he also held the role of director of Fundamental Value Research at AB, where he managed 50 fundamental analysts globally. Prior to managing portfolios, Sammy spent a decade as a research analyst. He joined AB in 1994 as a research associate covering the capital equipment industry, and then became an analyst covering the technology industry. From 1998 to 2004 Sammy served as senior research analyst for the global automotive industry. Before joining AB, he was a consultant at Bain & Company. Sammy holds a BS in materials science and engineering and a BS in finance from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a CFA charterholder.


Manuel Veron
Organization: Principal Financial Group


Juan M Veron, CFA has +25-yrs of professional experience in investments and finance. He joined Principal Financial Group Mexico as Chief Investment Officer in June 2014. His focus has been on building a solid investment and risk framework, develop new investment capabilities with emphasis on Alternatives, and develop new products and distribution channels. He has been involved in the development of Target Date Funds in the Mexican asset management industry. Prior to that, he had anInvestment Consultant role since May 2011, with focus on Global Institutional Investors, including direct investments. Preceding his tenure Juan had a long career at HSBC Group, acting in his last role as Chief Investment Officer for Latin America at HSBC Global Asset Management. Juan oversaw investments for about USD 54 billion across the region, focused on building a robust investment framework and supported global institutional sales team.He joined HSBC as a Senior Fixed Income Fund Manager inFebruary 2000. He was appointed Head of Fixed Income in June 2001 and he was designed as a Chief InvestmentOfficer for HSBC Maxima in April 2004. Preceding his tenure at HSBC, Juan served as a Latin American Equity Portfolio Manager at Santander Investment. Prior to that, he worked for Banco Rio as a Fund Manager and Security Analyst. Juan started his career in the investment business at Banca Nazionale del Lavoro as a Business and Planning Analyst. Juan earned a BA in Economics and a Master’s Degree in Capital Markets from Universidad de Buenos Aires. He also holds the CFA Charter and he has actively participated in the Argentina & Uruguay Society of the CFA Institute, where he was President in 2008-2010. Juan is a regular speaker at investment conferences. During 2008, he held the post of President at the Investment Commission of the Local Pension Fund Chamber (UAFJP) in Argentina. In this position, he had an active role in the development of Real Economy investment vehicles to pursue the risk / asset diversification and deepen the domestic capital market