Contact: Cristal Logan
Director, Community Programs
The Aspen Institute
Tel. 970-544-7929
info@aspeninstitute.org
Panel on Leadership in an Era of Globalization at Aspen Institute
Featuring Central American and South African Experts
Aspen, CO, September 16, 2008 –– The Aspen Institute will host a panel on “Leadership in an Era of Globalization: Central America and South Africa” on Tuesday, September 23, 2008. Central American and South African leaders will discuss the opportunities and challenges globalization has placed at their doorsteps. Panelists for this event include Marisol Argueta de Barillas, Secretary of State of El Salvador; Alberto Solano, Latin American programs director at Global Partnerships; Raisibe Morathi, executive director of Group Services at Sanlam Limited; and Derek Thomas, executive director of Letsema Holdings. Peter Reiling, Executive Vice President of Leadership and Seminar Programs at the Aspen Institute, will moderate the dialogue. The event will take from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Paepcke Auditorium on the Institute’s Aspen Meadows Campus. This event is free and open to the public.
Marisol Argueta de Barillas is Secretary of State of El Salvador. Ambassador Argueta de Barillas is a lawyer and career diplomat. She worked as Alternate Representative of El Salvador to the UN in New York from 1990-1997 and as Minister Counselor at the Embassy of El Salvador in Washington, DC from 1997-1999. She returned to El Salvador to become General Director of Foreign Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs until 2004 and also held the position of Senior Adviser at the Foreign Ministry. She was elected Vice President of the Organization of American States National Authorities Meeting for the Development of Women, lead innovative initiatives on Financing for Development, coordinated the II International Meeting on International Cooperation with Middle Income Countries, Chaired the OAS General Assembly 2008, and represented El Salvador in the Central American Integration Commission. She has headed different Salvadoran Official Delegations in various regional and global meetings and International Summits.
Alberto Salano is Latin American Programs Director at Global Partnerships, an international NGO that fosters micro and small enterprise development through financing and strategic support to more than 20 micro financial institutions in seven countries around the region. He has extensive experience in the microfinance industry and is a member of the Board of Directors of Inversiones Agropecuarias SA. Previously, he developed experience on small enterprise consultancy in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Guatemala. He also worked in the Sustainable Development Department at the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) in Honduras.
Raisibe Morathi is on secondment to the Presidency of South Africa as an economics advisor to the Deputy President. She is the executive director of Group Services at Sanlam Limited. Her responsibilities include group functions, IT, HR, Marketing, Communications, Shared Services, CSI and other related functions. Morathi joined Sanlam Group in May 2008 after some 7.5 years with the Industrial Development Corporation where she held several executive positions including, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Vice President for Industrial and Services sectors.
Derek Thomas is an executive director of Letsema Holdings, a diversified investment holding company with interest in the services and manufacturing sectors, where he is co-responsible for the overall strategy and growth of Letsema Holdings. Derek also serves as CEO of CEPPWAWU Investments (Pty) Ltd, a broad based black economic empowerment investment company. His investment-related area of focus is increasingly on start ups in the manufacturing sector. Thomas also serves as a consultant for the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), with engagement at the Director-General level where we works on projects of national strategic interest.
Peter A. Reiling is the Aspen Institute’s Executive Vice President for Leadership and Seminar Programs, and Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. Peter is a trustee, officer and senior moderator of the Aspen Institute, a Henry Crown Fellow (Class of 1998), and the founder of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), a joint venture between the Aspen Institute and five African business leaders. ALI has since been replicated in Central America as “CALI” and in India as “ILI” with plans to expand into China, the Mideast and Central Europe. Similar programs have also been launched in the fields of politics, education and the environment with plans to expand into health and social entrepreneurship. The goal of all these ventures is to stimulate a new generation of accomplished, entrepreneurial leaders to play a greater role in the social and political development of their communities and countries.
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