Eduardo Vazquez
Director, Agua Capital in Mexico City
Eduardo has a law degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana; a degree in Public Management from the CIDE and the University of Colorado, a degree in Corporate Social Responsibility by the Tecnológico de Monterrey, and a master's degree in Political Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Eduardo studied at the International Sustainability Program of El Colegio de México and LEAD International (Cohort XIII), and at the International Diplomacy Program at the Sustainability Challenge Foundation, IPMS (Cohort 19). He has worked in the water sector for 16 years, and has extensive experience in the public, social, and private sectors, with emphasis on public and legislative issues, and institutional relations. Eduardo was Legislation Director at the Legal Department of the Executivo Federal in Mexico, Director of Institutional Relations of the ICA Group, and Executive Director of the Water Advisory Council. He is currently part of different associations in the water sector and is the Executive Director of Agua Capital, whose mission is to promote water security in the Valley of Mexico.
Mariella Sánchez Guerra
Director, Aquafondo in Lima and Callao
Mariella is an economist, with a Business Administration masters from the University of Piura, and a specialist in Public-Private Inter-Sectoral Relations from the Inter-American Development Bank. Mariella is the director of Aquafondo, the Water Fund for Lima and Callao, and is the former Director of Acciona Microenergía and Hecho Social Club; She has worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, Swisscontact, the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion, and Genera Argentina, among others. She speaks on topics of Corporate Social Responsibility in national and international events.
Indira Isabel Lorenzo
Executive Director, Fondo de Agua Santo Domingo
Indira has an Executive Master in Renewable Energy from the School of Industrial Organization (EOI) of Madrid, is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certified by the American Society for Quality. She also specializes in Environmental Project Management. Indira has a degree in Industrial Engineer from the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and has more than 15 years of experience in the tourism and hydrocarbon sectors, leading important strategic planning projects. She has participated in the management and classification of numerous projects in Tourism Development promotion laws in the Dominican Republic, as well as Renewable Energy. She has implemented Integrated Management Systems in leading companies in the Dominican market.
Bert de Bièvre
Director, FONAG (Quito)
Bert has 25 years of experience in the Tropical Andes. He worked for 14 years in the academy at the University of Cuenca, Ecuador, where he helped establish research groups on water and soil management, and Andean hydrology. He then worked for 10 years leading projects in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, focused on Andean ecosystems such as páramo, watershed management, and hydrology of Andean basins. In more recent years, he was based in CONDESAN in Lima, Peru, where he advised the Ministry of the Environment and water regulating agency SUNASS in the design and implementation of policies that support incentives and payment for water ecosystem services in partnership with Forest Trends and Swiss Cooperation. He has led the Fund for the Protection of Water for Quito – FONAG – since October 2015 to fulfill its mission of conservation and recovery of water sources in the Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador).
María José Iturbide-Chang
Executive Director, FUNCAGUA
PhD in Environmental Policy and Planning, she started at FUNCAGUA in 2014 as a consultant developing the technical and planning documents to start the water fund in Guatemala City. It started with a small promoter group that soon after was consolidated giving shape to the Board of Directors that today manages the fund. Once the legal process of constituting FUNCAGUA ended in 2017, she was named Executive Director, position she holds to date. María José has experience in issues related to natural resource management, payment for environmental services, climate change and other themes that enrich the work of the fund. She has worked in the government sector, academia, for NGOs, and the private sector. Her wish is to see Guatemala committed to the conservation of water to guarantee its availability to the next generations.