Speakers

Carlos Vecchio

Ambassador of Venezuela

United States of America

En febrero de 2019, el Presidente Interino Juan Guaidó designó al abogado Carlos Vecchio como Embajador de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela ante los Estados Unidos, con el aval de la Asamblea Nacional. Durante la ceremonia de aceptación de credenciales diplomáticas, realizada en el 8 de abril de 2019, el Presidente Donald Trump afirmó que Carlos Vecchio era “el primer Embajador de Venezuela en Estados Unidos en 8 años y su nombramiento se da en un momento histórico en el que el Presidente Guaidó ha fijado con coraje una ruta para los venezolanos”. 

Carlos Vecchio es abogado egresado de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, con postgrado en Derecho Tributario en la misma casa de estudios superiores. Tiene una Maestría en Administración Pública de la Escuela Kennedy de la Universidad de Harvard. Gracias a su alto desempeño académico, recibió la beca Fullbright y obtuvo un Master en Leyes en la Universidad de Georgetown en Washington D.C. En 2013 obtiene el título del programa Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow Program de la Universidad de Yale. 

En junio de 2014 salió al exilio en los Estados Unidos, luego de que el 17 de febrero de ese año el régimen de Nicolás Maduro emitiera una infame orden de captura en su contra, por su lucha junto a Leopoldo López en contra de la dictadura. Antes de partir al exilio Carlos Vecchio permaneció en clandestinidad durante 108 días. 

Desde el exilio se convirtió en uno de los principales voceros y actores internacionales por la restitución de la democracia en Venezuela y contra el régimen de Nicolás Maduro. Su trabajo estuvo enfocado en denunciar la grave situación humanitaria y de violación de derechos fundamentales en su país, sosteniendo reuniones y encuentros internacionales del más alto nivel, al tiempo que se dedicó a organizar y movilizar a la diáspora venezolana en favor de la lucha por la libertad de Venezuela. Su esfuerzo y compromiso durante estos años ha sido factor clave en el reconocimiento y apoyo de la comunidad internacional a la lucha que está librando el pueblo venezolano por restablecer la democracia en el país, en la presión que la comunidad internacional ha establecido contra el régimen usurpador en Venezuela, y el reconocimiento mundial al drama humanitario del pueblo venezolano y las acciones para llevar ayuda humanitaria a los millones de venezolanos que hoy sufren.
 

Carlos Vecchio es cofundador del partido político Voluntad Popular, junto a Leopoldo López y Juan Guaidó, en el cual se ha desempeñado como Coordinador Nacional Político desde que fue electo en 2010. Bajo su coordinación política, Voluntad Popular se ha convertido en símbolo de lucha por los derechos políticos y sociales en Venezuela. Ha sido coordinador en las campañas presidenciales de los candidatos de oposición Henrique Capriles Radonski y Leopoldo López. Fue precandidato a la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela en las primarias de la Mesa de la Unidad Democrática de 2010 y precandidato a la Alcaldía de Chacao en 2008. En momentos de necesaria unidad para el país, su renuncia a la candidatura reflejó de manera aleccionadora su talante íntegro y profundamente democrático, pero sobre todo su convicción de que solo con la Unidad de todos sería posible poner fin a la dictadura. 

A través de la Asociación Civil “Ciudadanía Activa”, la cual fundó en 2002, Vecchio ha sido activista por los derechos humanos desde donde asumió la promoción y defensa de los derechos, civiles humanos y políticos de todos los ciudadanos, así como la preservación y la restitución de los principios y valores democráticos en Venezuela. 

Carlos Vecchio nació el 6 de junio de 1969 en la ciudad de Caripe, en el estado oriental de Monagas. Como Excelentísimo Embajador de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela ante los Estados Unidos ha jugado un rol clave en convertir la causa humanitaria y libertaria de Venezuela en una lucha bipartidista, logrando resultados concretos contra el régimen usurpador y avanzando hacia el cese definitivo de la dictadura en Venezuela. 

Luis A. Pacheco

President - Ad Hoc Administrative Board

PDVSA

Dr. Pacheco has 38 years’ experience in the energy sector, including 17 years in the Venezuelan oil industry (PDVSA) where he held a number of senior positions including: CEO of BITOR (PDVSA’s heavy oil affiliate) and Executive Director of Corporate Planning. From 2008 to 2016, he held the position of Senior VP of Strategy and IT in Pacific Exploration and Production, the largest private oil & Gas Company in Colombia and Peru. Dr. Pacheco got his first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Zulia, Venezuela; he also holds a M.Sc. degree from Manchester University (1976) and a PhD from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London (1980). 

Dr. Pacheco is a Nonresident Fellow at the Baker Institute and has lectured at Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela and has also been a guest lecturer at IESA, UNIANDES, Universidad Sergio Arboleda, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Harvard University and Georgetown University.

Alejandro Grisanti

Ad Hoc Member of the Board

PDVSA

After acquiring more than thirty years of experience in the field of economics, as a professor, consultant and researcher; Alejandro Grisanti decided to join efforts for a peacefully transition in Venezuela, accepting Guido’s nomination as director of the Ad-Hoc administrative board of PDVSA, and member of the Presidential advisory team for debt re-structuration. Since 2011, Dr. Grisanti is a Member of the Advisory Committee for the Latin American Board at Georgetown University. Previously, Dr. Grisanti was the CEO of Ecoanalítica, and obligated source of political and economics analysis in Venezuela. Dr. Grisanti worked in Knossos Asset Management; a firm engaged in managing investment funds, specializing in Venezuelan financial assets, where he won the Investor Choice award as the best multi-strategy emerging market fund in 2016.He worked at Barclays as Managing Director, Head of Latin America Research; and before that he was the Chief Economist of Banco de Venezuela, Santander Group. Mr. Grisanti also worked in the Inter-American Development Bank. Institutional Investor has awarded 5 times Dr. Grisanti as the best research team: for Latin America in 2015 and for the Andean region, four years in a row, from 2001 to 2004.

Dr. Grisanti is a professor at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) and at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA). He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a M.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from the Economic Institute in Boulder. He also has a degree in computer engineering from the Universidad Simón Bolivar and a degree in economics from UCAB.

Member

National Assembly of Venezuela

Beth Urbanas

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas

U.S. Department of Energy

Beth Urbanas is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas at the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy. Ms. Urbanas is responsible for managing DOE’s bilateral and multilateral engagement with Asian and American countries. Ms. Urbanas is also responsible for DOE's work in several multilateral fora including the North Amerian Leaders' Summit, APEC and ECPA. Prior to her current position, she was the Director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy. In this role she was also responsible for DOE's work in the G20 and G7.

Prior to working at DOE, Ms. Urbanas spent 14 years at the U.S. Treasury Department where she created and directed the Office of Environment and Energy and represented the United States on the boards of several international organizations including the Global Environment Facility, the Clean Technology Fund, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Bank.  Ms. Urbanas started her career in investment management on Wall Street and has also held a staff position at the World Bank.  Ms. Urbanas has a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.B.A from George Mason University.

Ali Moshiri

CEO and President

Amos Global Energy

Ali Moshiri retired from Chevron at mandatory age as President of Chevron Africa and Latin America in March 2017.

Currently, he is the CEO and President of Amos Global Energy, a newly formed company in Houston, Texas. Ali Moshiri graduated from the University of Tulsa with bachelors and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering.

He joined Chevron in 1978. He was appointed Managing Director of the Latin America business unit, where he was responsible for Chevron’s upstream operations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela. He became the President of Chevron Africa and Latin America in 2008 until his retirement.

Carlos E. Jordá

President and Chief Executive Officer

CITGO

Carlos E. Jordá is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CITGO Petroleum Corporation. He has 47 years of experience in the international oil and gas industry. Prior to this position, he served as a Director at Delek US Holdings, Inc., a refining and marketing firm, and as a Consultant in Gaffney, Cline & Associates, where he advised oil companies in both upstream and downstream operations in the United States and abroad. He started his professional career in the 1970s in Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) where he held several top executive positions in refining, corporate planning, finance and upstream, including Vice President of Refining, Vice President of PDVSA, and President of PDV America. He also served as chairman of the CITGO Board of Directors from 1999 – 2002.

Mr. Jordá holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the Michigan Technological University and Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Joaquin Sarria

Member

Venezuela Petroleum Chamber

Joaquin Sarria is a Civil Engineer graduated from the Universidad Metropolitana (1982) located in Caracas, Venezuela. He also obtained a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984), Cambridge, United States. He studied Offshore Exploration and Deep Foundation Design.

He was the on site Exploration Manager in Geohidra Consultores, C. A. from 1984 to 1990. After, he worked as Director of Liquid Carbonic de Venezuela, S. A. from 1991 to 1996 and President and Shareholder of NEWCO S. A., owner of the Cindu Group, a company with operations in 36 countries, from 1997 to 1999.

From 2003 to 2013, he was Director and Shareholder of Geohidra Consultores, C. A.

Geohidra is an EPC Venezuelan Company with more than 39 years of experience in the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Business, a worldwide leader company in Offshore and Onshore Site Characterization. As an engineer, he was part of the PMT in EPC Projects achieving Five (5) worldwide records in engineering and construction, like the EPC of the largest Power Generation Plants in Tacoa, Venezuela, 342 MW, 2011.

Joaquin Sarria has held a variety of technical and management positions. His expertise covers site surveys for Metocean, Geophysical, Geotechnical and Environmental Assessment, including soil behavior and earthquake simulation, deep foundation analysis and design for offshore platforms, subsea pipelines, ports and bridges.

Joaquin Sarria has also experience managing infrastructure projects, compressed gas plants and has been responsible for ports operation for sulfur, coke, ammonia, urea among other chemical products.

He was Director and shareholder of Petrocor AG, from 2013 to 2018, a Swiss multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, that oversees and manages its own companies while having equity shares in several globally recognized firms.

From 2018, he is President of Petrocor C. A., a Venezuelan IPC & OM company that incorporates financing schemes, guarantying on time execution. 

Petrocor C. A. sustainability strategy comprehensively covers all stages of the energy sector’s value chain, from oil & gas fields ownership, project financing, engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction, operation and maintenance of facilities, to well services. The company is backed by many years of experience of each of its equity partners and strategic allies and it has successfully undertaken an internationalization process that has given it presence in more than six countries.

Joaquin Sarria is Director and Treasurer of the Venezuelan Chamber of Petroleum and Vice President of the Venezuela’s MIT Association, both positions held from 2018.

Francisco Monaldi

Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy

Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University

Dr. Monaldi is the Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy and Director of the Latin American Initiative at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston. He is the Founding Director and Professor at the Center for Energy and the Environment at IESA in Caracas. He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard, Stanford, and Tufts; and a Fellow at Hoover Institution, the Center for Global Energy Policy, and the Belfer Center. He has been a consultant to governments, multilateral agencies, and corporations. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Masters from Yale University.

Juan Szabo

Energy Consultant

Mr. Szabo is a professional engineer, with a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical/Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston, with 49 years of experience in the petroleum industry.

He has worked in the Service Industry, at major Integrated Oil companies, an NIOC’s, at small and mid-cap listed and private oil companies in several parts of the world.

Has advised on energy matters, oil companies, investment funds and multilateral institutions.

However, most of his career was dedicated to the Venezuelan Oil Industry in drilling, reservoir management, planning, petrochemicals finance and mergers and acquisitions. Highlights of his tenure in PDVSA was heading the offshore exploration campaign in 1978, acquisition of the now Citgo assets and the "Apertura" process in the 90’s.

Osmel Manzano

Regional Economic Advisor

Inter-American Development Bank

Osmel Manzano is Regional Economic Advisor for the Country Department for the Andean Countries.  He is responsible for the economic work and macroeconomic monitoring of the IADB in the Andean region. He has been working on the development challenges in the region, with emphasis on natural resources, energy, growth and productivity. He is the authored different publications on these subjects. Previously he was the Regional Economic Advisor for the Country Department for Belize, Central America, Haiti, Mexico, Panama and Dominican Republic.

In addition, he is Adjunct Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy in Georgetown University and IESA Business School (in Venezuela).  Before joining the IADB, he was Assistant Director, and Coordinator of the Research Program at the Andean Development Corporation (CAF). He was also Visiting Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and Adjunct Professor at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello and has been invited to teach at different Latin American universities. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government of the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University). He holds a Ph.D. Degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

César Mata-Garcia

Advisor, Energy, Petroleum & Mines Commission

National Assembly of Venezuela

César Rafael Mata-García holds a Ph.D in Law and a LL.M in Petroleum Law and Policy from the University of Dundee, Scotland and a LL.B from the Catholic University Andres Bello, Venezuela. He has more than 15 years of experience in Oil & Gas projects in the public and private sectors and more than 10 years of expertise in the academic field, including academic research. Currently, he works as: (i) Legal Consultant on Oil & Gas matters, in various investment projects, both at national and international levels; (ii) Legal Advisor (Pro-bono) at the Permanent Commission of Energy and Petroleum of the Venezuela National Assembly and at the Venezuelan Petroleum Chamber; (iii) Aggregated Professor of Law at Metropolitan University, Venezuela; (iv); Honorary Lecturer at the University of Dundee, Scotland; and (iv) Speaker, instructor and writer on energy-legal topics at the national and international levels.

Jeff Sipes

Manager of Strategy & Business Development

Bechtel

Jeff Sipes joined Bechtel in 2014. He is currently the manager of Marketing and
Business Development for Bechtel Oil, Gas & Chemicals.

In January 2020, he will take on a newly created executive leadership role as the global manager of Strategy and Business Development for Bechtel Group, Inc. In his new role he will oversee marketing, new business, and customer engagement across all of Bechtel’s global business with a particular focus on creating durable long-term customer relationships. He will direct Bechtel’s enterprise-wide strategic planning and analysis of global markets, trends, and emerging opportunities. He will serve on the company’s operating committee.

Jeff is a seasoned business professional with more than 30 years of experience in the EPC industry He has served in various positions of increasing responsibility in project management, operations, and business development, and executive leadership roles in the United States, South America, and Asia. Jeff was elected a Bechtel principal vice president in 2015.

Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas Tech University. He was elected to the Texas Tech Civil Engineering Academy in 2010 and serves as an ambassador for the University’s International Experience Program.
Starting in 2020, Jeff will be based in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Member

National Assembly of Venezuela

David Voght

Founder & Managing Director

IPD Latin America

David is a gringozolano. A Boston native, he moved to Venezuela in 1991 to work in the marketing department of a Caracas-based oil services company.  After nearly a decade in the country, he founded IPD Latin America in 1999 with a firm conviction that locally and ethically sourced information, strong networks and a tactical feel for the politics of energy are the best tools to create opportunity, even in the most complex environments. Today, IPD is the only oil sector consulting firm with twenty years of uninterrupted presence in Venezuela and a growing footprint throughout Latin America.  With clients in the energy, financial and government sectors, IPD’s unique focus on the minutia bolsters its oil & gas production modeling, risk mitigation, government relations, legal, regulatory, and energy transition business lines.

Joel Guedes

Advisor M&A, JVs and Corporate Finance

IPD Latin America

Joel advises financial investors and IOCs/NOCs on assessment and management of their exposure to Venezuela’s O&G sector, focusing on operational and financial aspects that materially impact oil revenue stream and cash flow.

Prior to joining IPD, Joel worked with PDVSA for 20 years. He held senior level positions at PDVSA’s Corporate Finance and Corporate Planning departments.

Joel is a regular speaker on Venezuela’s O&G sector at international conferences like the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Global emerging markets corporate conferences.

Joel holds an MBA degree from Manchester Business School in the UK and a MSc in Finance from IESA in Venezuela.

Clancy Cottman

Managing Director

Pacific Oil & Gas LLC

Clancy Cottman has over 35 years’ experience as an energy executive managing business operations both in the United States and internationally.

He negotiated the first Operating Service Agreement in Venezuela in 1992, working with Lagoven, PDVSA and MEP. Subsequently, Clancy negotiated multiple acquisitions, financings and contracts in Venezuela, including exploration contracts both onshore and offshore. He arranged financing by the IFC (private arm of the World Bank) for investment in Venezuela and his efforts were instrumental in the building of the ICO gas pipeline in western Venezuela.

Currently, Clancy manages investments for the private company, Pacific Oil and Gas LLC.

Ha Nguyen

Director - Global Crude Oil Markets

IHS Markit

Ha Nguyen is the team leader of the global and Latin crude oil markets at IHS Markit.

With almost 14 years of international experience in crude oil markets, she provides forecasts and regular contributions to IHS Markit subscription-based energy publications. Before joining IHS Markit, Ms. Nguyen worked as a consultant and researcher for Purvin & Gertz. She has worked on several refining market studies, merger and acquisition support, replacement cost projects, crude oil valuations, due diligence support and LP modeling. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Houston, United States.

Thomas Davison

President

United Pegasus International

Mr. Davison is the President and CEO of Universal Pegasus International. He has over 40 years of experience in the design, construction, and operations of Oil and Gas production facilities worldwide. He has been involved in projects in Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico; Also extensive experience in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Russia,  and many domestic US oil and gas production and transmission projects. He is a 1978 graduate of Southern Illinois University.

Universal Pegasus International is a Houston-based company providing engineering, construction and procurement services to the oil and gas industry, and is a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Vera de Brito de Gyarfas

Partner

Mayer Brown LLP

Ms. De Gyarfas is a Venezuelan lawyer who practiced in Venezuela for 17 years before moving to Houston in 2011. Vera represented IOCs and NOCs during the Venezuelan Apertura in the 90s, subsequently she negotiated the migration of Strategic Associations and Operating Services Agreements into Mixed Company Structures and finally advised these companies with respect to international Arbitrations for the protection of investments.

Raúl Gallegos

Director

Control Risks

Raúl Gallegos leads the political risk practice in the Andean region for Control Risks. He is an expert in Venezuela and advises oil and gas clients on how to manage economic, political, reputational and security risks in high risk environments, including frontier markets like Guyana. For more than 15 years Raul worked as an international journalist including as a Caracas-based correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of “Crude Nation: How Oil Riches Ruined Venezuela”, a book praised by The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN's Fareed Zakaria. He holds a BA in Economics from UC Berkeley, a master's degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and a master's in Journalism also from Columbia.

Lisa Viscidi

Director of the Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries Program

Inter-American Dialogue

Lisa Viscidi is the director of the Energy, Climate Change & Extractive Industries Program at the Inter-American Dialogue. A specialist in Latin American energy issues, Viscidi has written numerous reports and articles on energy policy and regulations, oil and gas markets, climate change, sustainable transport, social and environmental impacts of natural resources development, and the geopolitics of energy in the region.

Before joining the Dialogue, she was New York bureau chief and Latin America team leader for Energy Intelligence Group and subsequently a manager in the energy practice at Deloitte. She has also served as director of EntreMundos, a nonprofit organization based in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Ms. Viscidi’s articles have been published in The Financial Times, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, and Foreign Affairs. She frequently presents at conferences and universities throughout the United States and Latin America and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, and other news outlets. She was called to testify before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in 2017. Viscidi received a Fulbright Specialist grant in 2017 to teach a course on climate change and environmental policy at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. She currently serves on the Leadership Council for the National Capital Area Chapter of the US Association for Energy Economics.

Viscidi conducted her undergraduate work in history at the George Washington University and the University of Barcelona and completed a master’s degree in Latin American studies with a focus on economic development and public policy from New York University. Viscidi speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Marco Poisler

Chief Operating Officer

UTC Overseas, Inc

Marco Poisler is a member of UTC’s Global Executive Management Team and Board of Directors. Poisler has played an integral role in UTC’s establishment of strategic Global Energy & Capital Project offices around the world supporting a global supply chain. UTC Overseas specializes in designing tailored transport strategies for over-dimensional, over-weight, and specialized equipment.

Born and raised in Jersey City and in a family passionate about transportation, Poisler went on to study economics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and complete a Masters in Transportation at SUNY Maritime. Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and a working knowledge of Ukrainian, his background has informed and inspired his passion for global logistics and the exciting challenges the job brings him every day.

Fernando D. Rodriguez

Managing Director

HSE International

Fernando Rodriguez has 30+ years’ experience in the international energy sector, including corporate senior leadership roles in projects, operations, and business functions, and consulting. He is the Founder and Managing Director of HSE International, a management consultancy that provides environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services. He has been a consultant to governments, multilateral agencies, investors and corporations worldwide.

Highlights of his tenure in Venezuela from 1992 to 2006 include, among others, pursuing, nurturing and securing the first integrated strategic association, first profit sharing offshore oil and gas development, and founding and presiding the Venezuelan Petroleum HSE Committee.

Mr. Rodriguez holds Master and Bachelor of engineering degrees from the University of Colorado and completed his executive education at the University of Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership, Thunderbird School of Global Management Program for Oil & Gas Industry Executives, and MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program. He has contributed to industry publications, most recently Balancing Petroleum Policy toward value, sustainability and security published by the World Bank Group in 2019. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the International Association of Impact Assessment.