HUGO LI PUN – EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

Dr. Hugo Li Pun is FONTAGRO’s Executive Secretary, based at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Washington, DC. USA. He is a specialist in agricultural research and innovation and he has worked uninterruptedly in seven international organizations fulfilling senior management positions in four of them. He was Deputy Representative in the USA and Senior Specialist in Strategic Partnerships for IICA. He was Deputy Director General of Centro Internacional de la Papa for Corporate Development in Peru and he also was Resident Director in Ethiopia and Director of the Sustainable Production Systems Program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). He worked at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada. His research experience in samllholder agriculture started at the Tropical Research and Training Center (CATIE) as coordinator in Panama. Previously he was an Associate Professor at the National Agrarian University La Molina (UNALM) in Peru and consultant to the private sector. He has been invited frequently as a speaker in multiple international meetings. Through the years he has led negotiations and implemented R & D projects with various organizations including the World Bank, IDB, Asian Development Bank. African Development Bank, CIDA, IDRC, IFAD, USAID, Ford Foundation and various governments including Spain, Switzerland, Korea, Japan, China And italy, among others. He has significant experience in development, an entrepreneurial personality and enjoys working in teams with flexibility and pragmatism.He is Bachelor of Sciences, Animal Sciences, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. Lima, Perú and has a Ph.D. in Nutrition, Meat and Animal Sciences and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

 

EUGENIA SAINI – ADMINISTRATOR

Eugenia Saini is FONTAGRO’s administrator; she is based at IDB Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and has broad experience in strategic planning and management of international projects and programs for innovation and agricultural policy. For the last 18 years she has worked in public and private institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, where she has held several middle-management positions directing business and rural development projects. An Agricultural Engineer (Agronomist engineer) with a Master’s degree in agri-business and food, she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Buenos Aires.  She studied public accounting and administration at the Argentinian Business University (UADE) and applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. She was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Virginia Tech and Cornell University, where she specialized in leadership, applied economics and agricultural policy. She also studied agro-food logistics at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza (IAMZ) and strategic project management at the American Management Association.  She has taught in several institutions and published research work together with the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Argentina, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  She is a member of the former Fulbright Scholar commission of Argentina.

MARIA GABRIELA TERCERO – PROJECT SPECIALIST

Maria Gabriela Tercero is a project specialist at the FONTAGRO Technical and Administrative Secretariat in Washington, DC. She is a professional with 9 years of experience working on impact investment projects in the Latin America region. Prior to joining FONTAGRO, she worked at the private sector windows of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Multilateral Investment Fund and at the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC). She also worked in business development and project supervision at the IIC country office in Nicaragua. Maria Gabriela holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins University and a Technical Diploma in Project Formulation and Evaluation from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería of Nicaragua and is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. 

 

CARINA CARRASCO – COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER

Carina Carrasco is currently the communications and knowledge management adviser for the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology, FONTAGRO, administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).  Since 2010 Carina works as a communications adviser for development institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2013 she created the communications department of FONPLATA, a multilateral organization for countries in the southern cone, based in Bolivia. Previously, Carina organized the Seminars Program for several IDB annual meetings and she also coordinated the Juscelino Kubitschek Award, which is given by IDB to institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean for their contributions to social and economic development of the region. In Argentina, Carina was the Academic Coordinator of the World Congress ENGINEERING 2010- ARGENTINA, conducted under the sponsorship of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, which gathered more than 4000 engineers working for sustainable development. She participated in the creation of the Argentina Global Compact Network (UN) in its role as administrator and leader of corporate social responsibility in the private sector. She holds a Master Degree in Communications Management from Universidad Austral/IAE, Argentina.