Moderators | Central America Leadership Initiative

Sylvia Gereda (moderator in training)

Ms. Gereda is the Director and Vice President of El Periodico a prominent Guatemalan newspaper and the Guatemalan. She is also the head of the Investigative Journalism Team at this newspaper, the only one of its kind in Guatemala, and writes twice a week an opinion column in the editorial section of El Periódico. In 2004, she was recognized as an honorable citizen by Guatemalan President Oscar Berger and was called to partake in the National Council Against Corruption and to implement laws in favor of Transparency. She also holds a Ph.D in sociology at the University of Salamanca in Spain. She also holds a degree in literature from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and a degree in technical journalism from Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala. In 2006, she was appointed as Regional Vice President of the Free Press Commission under the Inter-American Press Society (SIP for its initials in Spanish). She has been a member of the Editorial Board of Director of the Centro Latinoamericano de Periodismo. Also, she is a representative for Journalists Without Frontiers, a France-based organization that aims to defend freedom of the press throughout the world Both are positions she has held since 1996. She is the President of Vital Voices chapter Guatemala, a preeminent non-governmental organization (NGO) in Washington that identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe. She is also member of the board of directors in Guatemala of INCAE Business School in Costa Rica. Also, she teaches journalism at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala and moderates the Central American Leadership Initiative seminars, from the Aspen Institute. From 1993-1996 she was the Chief Editor of Politics at Diario Siglo Ventiuno (21st Century). Prior to that from 990-1992 she was Director of the woman´s magazine . She has taken various seminars on freedom of the press and ethics in journalism.

Stace Lindsay (senior moderator)

Stace Lindsay

Stace Lindsay is the president of Fusion Venture Partners, a firm he started in order to bring together:

* People of great vision that inspire change, engender trust and are moved deeply to make a difference
* Insights that have the power to improve our quality of life, protect that which is in danger or to fix that which is broken in our world
* Capital that can be deployed with foresight, patience and commitment to finding ways to be leveraged for economic and social good.

He has been a strategic advisor to senior business, government and non-profit leaders throughout the world, having held senior positions at both Monitor Company and the OTF Group, where he worked closely with Michael Porter to adapt his work to emerging markets. He also has significant start-up, turnaround and operating experience with companies, having been CEO of New England Portable Storage and VP Business Development for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. He has also been a Managing Partner in the Latin American focused venture capital firm, Explorador.net. Stace is the co-founder the Central American Leadership Initiative, part of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network where he is also a Senior Moderator. Stace serves on the Executive Committee of the Aspen Network For Development Entrepreneurs as well as the Board of Directors of TechnoServe, a non-profit organization dedicated to building competitive businesses in rural Africa and Latin America. He has also been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Business School as well as the University of Adolpho Ibanez Business School in Chile. He is the co-author of Plowing the Sea: Nurturing the Hidden Sources of Growth in the Developing World. He is also author of "Culture, Strategy and Prosperity" in Culture Matters. Stace is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and earned his degrees in International Relations from Georgetown University and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He and his family make their home in Cambridge, MA.

Harry W. Strachan

Harry Strachan is Managing Director of Mesoamerica Investments (1998-Present) whose four divisions serve the major business groups of Central America and Panama and the Andean region from offices out of Costa Rica and Bogota, Colombia. Mesoamerica Capital Partners is involved in scale private equity investments. Mesoamerica M&A provides advisory services on mergers and acquisitions. Mesoamerica Consulting provides strategy and profit improving consulting. Mesoamerica Foundation channels part of the profits and our resources to support pro bono efforts mainly in the area of education. Harry was a partner of Bain & Co from 1979 to 1998 and continues active part time with Bain and Bain Capital in their new partner training and Mexico / C.A. activities. Harry was a business school professor at INCAE and the Harvard Business School from 1970-1979 and Rector of INCAE in the 1981/2 transition. A significant portion of Harry’s time is devoted to pro bono boards, activities and teaching. He is President of the Strachan Foundation he established in honor of his parents and grandparents. Non Profit Boards and Association Activities (1992-present): Foundations: Strachan, Mesoamerica, Educational Boards: INCAE, ESEN, nonprofits: Hospital Clinica Biblica, Adelante, CALI, Associations: AmCham, CEAL. Education: D.B.A., Harvard Business School (1972), J.D. Harvard Law School (1966), B.A. Wheaton College, Ill. (1963). Harry was born in Costa Rica of missionary parents. He is married, has two children and four grandsons. His hobbies are golf, poker and reading.

Peter A. Reiling (Senior Moderator)

Peter Reiling

Peter A. Reiling is Executive Vice President for Leadership and Seminar Programs and Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program at the Aspen Institute. In these roles, he oversees the Institute's growing portfolio of leadership initiatives (the Aspen Global Leadership Network) and seminars (including The Aspen Seminar, offered at the Institute since 1950) as well as its flagship leadership 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", in India as "ILI" and in the Middle East as “MELI”. 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.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, from 1996 to 2004, Peter was President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international organization helping entrepreneurs across Africa, Latin America, India and Central Europe to build businesses in their communities (www.technoserve.org. He is co-founder of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and currently serves as chairman of the board of the CALI Foundation as well as on the boards of ALI/East Africa, ALI/West Africa, ALI/South Africa, Agora Partnerships and the Energy Access Foundation. Peter is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and guest lecturer at the Institute for Developing Economies in Tokyo. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as the Bretton Woods Committee, and was named "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur" by the Schwab Foundation in Geneva. A graduate of Georgetown University (BSFS) and the University of California/Berkeley (MBA), with additional studies at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Peter is married to Denise Byrne and is the father of two children, Dylan and Eva Luna.

Margarita Herdocia (moderator in training)

Margarita Herdocia, President & CEO, Renaissance Holdings. Margarita leads Renaissance Real Estate, which manages sizeable projects in residential and commercial real estate in Central America. She is also a director of Brownsville Business Corporation, which built the Citibank Tower and the Acropolis Plaza complex in the Dominican Republic. She heads CVIC (Caribbean Viernes International), a company that owns and operates TGIFriday’s, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in the area. She is also on the board of directors of Genesis Desarrolladores, which built Forum Office Complex in Costa Rica. Margarita is a member of the Board of Directors of the Young Presidents' Organization Costa Rica Chapter, and has held several board positions, including the Presidency of the Costa Rica chapter. She is very involved in several philanthropic initiatives and NGOs, including: The Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, of which she is acting President and in charge of building the first Conflict Resolution Center in the Area; ADA or Amigos del Aprendizaje, a pilot project for more efficient learning methods for pre-school and elementary children; member of the assembly of InBio, Costa Rica’s premier Bio diversity center. She is also the founder and president-emeritus of AMARTE (Asociación de Amigos del Museo de Arte Costarricense), which created the first sculpture garden in Central America; and President of “Ticos y Nicas: Somos Hermanos” an organization that promotes good relations between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Margarita attended Duke University and Columbia University's Barnard College, and graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Political Science and Psychology, and a Minor in Economics. She, her husband Jaime Montealegre and three sons make their home in Escazu, Costa Rica.