Meet our Leaders
As AIB Latin America & the Caribbean’s main governing body, our leadership team is responsible for member outreach, facilitating professional development opportunities, and organizing our annual Chapter Conference.
Below, you’ll find background details on each of our team members, our roles and responsibilities, and contact information to help you connect with us online.
Maria Alejandra
Gonzalez-Perez
Chapter Chair
Chapter Chair
The Chapter Chair oversees all executive committee functions, including membership outreach, event coordination, and financial management.
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez (PhD, MBS, Psy) is Full Professor of Management at Universidad EAFIT (Colombia). Alejandra was the Vice-President of Administration at the Academy of International Business (AIB) (August 2015- August 2018) and the regional chapter chair for Latin America and the Caribbean (AIB-LAC) (July 2018-July 2021), Member of the global council of the Sustainable Development Goal number 1 (SDG 1: End Poverty) of the World Government Summit (WGS) (2018-2020), coordinator of the Colombian universities in the virtual institute of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 2009; Distinguished Fellow of the Association of Certified Commercial Diplomats; Research Partner at the CEIBS Center for Emerging Market Studies (CEMS), Area Editor of the Cross-Cultural and Strategic Management (CCSM) journal; Associate Editor Transnational Corporations; and Editor-in-Chief of the business journal AD-minister.
Dr. Gonzalez-Perez holds a PhD in Commerce (International Business and Corporate Social Responsibility), and a Master in Business Studies (MIB) in Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management from the National University of Ireland, Galway. She also did postdoctoral research at the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) in NUI Galway. Prof. Gonzalez-Perez was the Head of the Department of International Business (2009-2013) and Director of the International Studies Research Group (2008-2013) at Universidad EAFIT (Colombia).
Prior to her positions in Colombia, she worked as a researcher in various organisations such as the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC), Irish Chambers of Commerce, and the Economics of Social Policy Research Unit (ESPRU) in Ireland. She also has been a Visiting Professor at ESAN (Lima, Peru); and the Lebanese American University (LAU) (Beirut, Lebanon).
Dr. Gonzalez-Perez has published 15 books, over 50 academic peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters in the areas of internationalisation, sustainability, corporate social responsibility and international migration. She is a regular contributor to Latin American business media. Her research results have been presented in over 100 international academic conferences in all the continents. Also, she was trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) in Colombia. Alejandra has lived, studied or worked in the UK, USA, Ireland, France, Spain, and Colombia, and have travelled to nearly 90 countries.
William Newburry
Past Chair
Past Chair
The Past Chair’s primary duty is to provide guidance and historical information as a member of the Chapter Executive Committee. S/he performs additional duties assigned by the Executive Committee and also chairs the committee for chapter elections.
William Newburry
William Newburry (Ph.D., New York University) is Chair of the Department of International Business and the Ryder Eminent Scholar of Global Business at Florida International University. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at the Nanyang Business School Center for Emerging Market Studies.
Dr. Newburry is currently the Associate Editor of AIB Insights and is Series Editor for Research in Global Strategic Management. He recently served as Chapter Chair of the Academy of International Business Latin America Chapter from 2012-2018.
Dr. Newburry’s research focuses on how multinational corporations relate to subsidiaries and other local stakeholders when they invest in foreign countries, with an emphasis on reputation in emerging markets. He co-authored Emerging Market Multinationals: Managing Operational Challenges for Sustained International Growth (2016), and has published 40+ articles in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals, along with 20+ book chapters.
He serves on the Senior Advisory Board of the Review of International Business and Strategy, and on several journal editorial boards.
Cyntia Calixto
Program Co-Chair
Program Co-Chair
Help coordinate all facets of the annual chapter conference, including the assignment of track chair responsibilities and planning pre-conference doctoral consortia and paper development workshops.
Cyntia Vilasboas Calixto
Cyntia Vilasboas Calixto is a lecturer at Fundaçao Getulio Vargas – FGV (Brazil). She earned her PhD in Business Strategy from FGV, which included an exchange program at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Her research interests are related to International Business, Business Models and Tech Companies. She has substantial experience in supporting foreign companies in doing business in Brazil and advising Brazilian companies interested in exporting and expanding their operations abroad.
Patricio Duran
Program Co-Chair
Patricio Duran
Patricio Duran earned his PhD in Business Administration, International Business from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
His areas of specialization are global strategy, global corporate governance, and institutions. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Global Strategy Journal, among others.
Ronaldo Parente
Program Co-Chair
Affiliation: Florida International University
Ronaldo Parente
Ronaldo Parente is the Ryder Eminent Scholar Research Fellow, a Professor of Strategy and International Business, and a Faculty Fellow of Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. Dr. Parente is also a visiting scholar at Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV-EBAPE) in Brazil.
At FIU he was the director of the doctoral program for 4 years until 2018. He has experience designing and teaching executive programs for C-level executives in Brazil, Colombia and in Miami. Dr. Parente’s research has appeared in many leading academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Industrial and Corporate Change, among others. Dr. Parente is associate editor for the Cross Cultural Strategic Management Journal and serves on the Editorial Review Board of JIBS, GSJ, TIBR, JWB and JIM.
Dr. Parente served as an elected board member for the European International Business Association (EIBA) for 6 years and also a 3-year term leadership position with the Global Strategy IG at SMS. He is currently serving another 3-year term for the Teaching Community at SMS and he is current one of the VP of the Ibero-American Academy of Management. Dr. Parente has been the chair and organizer of two SMS Special conferences in Brazil: The 2018 SMS Conference in Sao Paulo and the 2011 SMS Conference in Rio de Janeiro. He also organized and co-chaired the CLADEA Annual Meeting in 2013.
On the professional side, Dr. Parente has over 15-years of work experience working in the industry as a manager and consultant for several private and public institutions in Brazil, the United States, and Bulgaria.
Dinorá Floriani
Communications Officer
Affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Itajaí
Communications Officer
The communications officer is responsible for managing all chapter outreach initiatives, including newsletters, social media networks, and the official website. They also work with the chapter’s country representatives to increase organizational visibility and engage AIB members from underrepresented regions.
Dinorá Eliete Floriani
Dinorá Eliete Floriani is the Director for Professional master’s in science (MsC) in Management and International Business, and coordinates the Master of Business Administration (MBA). She is currently a Full Professor of Internationalization Strategy at University of Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI)–Brazil. She has also served as a Visiting Professor at University of Florence in Italy and Halmstad University in Sweden.
Miguel Montoya
Country Representative, Mexico
Country Representative
Country representatives are responsible for increasing the chapter’s visibility within their region, engaging current and potential members, and organizing official events at or around their home institution.
Miguel A. Montoya
Miguel A. Montoya has a B.A. in Economics, a Master degree and a PhD in Applied Economics at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. He currently serves as a Tenure Professor in the Tecnologico de Monterrey.
He is part of the National Council for Technology and Science (CONACYT-Mexico), The Economic Council of Business Association (COPARMEX-Mexico), Academy of International Business and Academy of Management, among others. He has published articles in academic journals and book chapters and he has participated in different academic conferences.
Dr. Montoya teaches courses on International Economics and International Business in the Business School/EGADE Tecnologico de Monterrey and, as a visiting professor, at the Moore School of Business (University of South Carolina, USA), ESAN (Peru), Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador), Instituto Ortega y Gasset (Spain), and Burdeaux School of Business and Montpellier Business School (France).
His areas of interest are Multinationals Companies (Multimexicanas) and Business for BoP.
Gerald McDermott
Country Representative, United States
Gerald McDermott
Gerald A. McDermott is a professor of international business at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining the Moore School, he was an assistant professor of multinational management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania for seven years and held a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science.
He specializes in international business and political economy. McDermott received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at MIT. His first stream of research focused on the impact of industrial networks on the creation of economic governance institutions in post-communist countries. His current research in South America uses both comparative and statistical survey methods to examine the socio-political conditions under which societies build new innovative capacities to achieve sustained upgrading in their industries. Besides relevant scholarly articles, this work has thus far produced a highly unique multi-region, multi-sector (wine and autos) database with state-of-the-art measurements of firm-level upgrading capabilities, inter-firm networks and institutional networks. He has also recently launched a project about the impact of international integration regimes on local institutional development via a comparison of the EU accession, NAFTA and Mercosur.
His publications include articles in such scholarly journals as Comparative Political Studies, Industrial and Corporate Change, Review of International Political Economy, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Studies and Politics & Society as well as his book, Embedded Politics: Industrial Networks and Institutional Change in Post-Communism (University of Michigan Press, 2002), which was a finalist for APSA’s 2003 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the Best Book on government, politics and international affairs. McDermott has also consulted for the multilateral lending institutions and the governments of the Czech Republic and Argentina. He lived in Prague for over four years and in Buenos Aires for over six years, being fluent in both Czech and Spanish.
Jorge Carneiro
Country Representative,
Brazil
Jorge Carneiro
Jorge Carneiro has a PhD in Business Administration from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a MSc in Business Administration from PUC-Rio (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro), and a bachelor in Electronic Engineering from PUC Rio. He currently serves as Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Strategy and International Business at FGV São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV/EAESP) and academic coordinator of OneMBA – global executive MBA.
Carneiro is (or has been) a member of the board of several academic associations: AIB-LAC (Academy of International Business, Latin American and Caribbean chapter), EIBA (European International Business Academy), BALAS (Business Association of Latin American Studies), and ANPAD (the Brazilian Academy of Management).
Carneiro was Editor-in-chief of the Brazilian Administration Review and guest editor of five special issues on Latin America published by the Journal of Business Research and the Multinational Business Review. Carneiro is a member of the editorial advisory board of International Business Review, Multinational Business Review and Management Research.
Carneiro’s research interests focus on strategic planning and execution, internationalization of emerging market enterprises, and organizational performance measurement. Carneiro has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, one book and has co-edited two books. Prior to embracing the academic career, Carneiro accumulated 16 years of professional experience in the oil & gas industry and at dotcom companies.
Diego Finchelstein
Country Representative, Argentina
Diego Finchelstein
Diego Finchelstein is an Assistant Professor at Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) and a researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina (CONICET). He holds a PhD from Northwestern University.
His main areas of expertise are related to the relation between institutions, state actions and internationalization as well as the evolution of business groups in Latin America. His research has been published in the Journal of World Business, Apuntes, Desarrollo Económico and Multinational Business Review, among others.
Diego is an active member of the Emerging Markets Research Network and the Latin American chapter of Academy of International Business, in which he is part of its executive board. He has also done consultancy work for the Argentine Secretariat of Energy and the IADB.
Diana Bank Weinberg is the representive for the rest of the world at the Latin America and Caribbean chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB).
Diana Bank Weinberg
Diana Bank Weinberg was born in Mexico and graduated from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA, with a two BA degrees (sociology and French), after which she went to Vienna, Austria to complete two MAs (international affairs/diplomacy from Webster University and the Diplomatic Academy, both in Vienna, Austria).
From 1990 and 1994, she worked at the US Congress and the Mexican Embassy´s NAFTA Office on international trade issues. Between 1994 and 1995, Diana attended Columbia University´s Graduate School of Business and got her MBA in marketing. From 1996 to 2000, she worked in the marketing department of New Dimension Software in Israel and started her PhD in international business and marketing, which she completed in 2008 at Bar Ilan University in Israel.
In 2000, Diana spent one year at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA teaching international business. From 2008 to 2009, Diana was part of the faculty teaching international business and marketing, coordinated two academic departments, and was Academic Director of the MBA for Women Entrepreneurs at ITESM, campus Puebla in Mexico. From 2010 to July 2014, she taught at the UDLAP (also in Puebla, Mexico), where she also coordinated three MA programs in marketing and international business.
Since 2013, Diana has been invited to be a Guest Professor at the Berlin School for Economics and Law in Berlin, Germany. Diana’s main focus is on emerging markets, with research interests in international marketing, social entrepreneurship, as well business education, among other.
Santiago Mingo
Country Representative,
Chile
Santiago Mingo
Santiago Mingo is an Associate Professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez’s School of Business in Santiago de Chile, where he teaches competitive strategy, corporate strategy, and global strategy. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard University. He also holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Santiago’s research explores how the institutional and business environment affects corporate strategy, global strategy, and entrepreneurial activity. Most of his work focuses on emerging markets. Lately, he has been studying the impact of institutions, geography, and networks on cross-border investments in emerging markets.
Santiago has published in academic journals such as Management Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Journal of World Business, and has presented his research at numerous conferences and universities around the world. He is also associate editor of the Journal of Business Research. Santiago is affiliated with the Nanyang Business School Center for Emerging Market Studies.
Andres Velez-Calle
Country Representative, Colombia
Andres Velez-Calle
Andres Velez-Calle is Colombia country representative of the Latin America and Caribbean regional chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB-LAT).
He is a Fulbright Scholar, who earned his PhD in Management with concentration in International Business from Rutgers University. He also possesses an MBA from the Berlin School of Economics and Law.
He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of International Business at Universidad EAFIT, Colombia. Prior to his academic career, Andres had extensive managerial experience as an entrepreneur and business owner.
His research interests include emerging market multinationals, alliances and culture. His publications appear in journals such as Small Business Economics, International Journal of Cross Cultural Management and Thunderbird International Business Review.
Sergio Garcia Agreda
Country Representative, Bolivia
Sergio Garcia Agreda
Sergio Garcia Agreda earned his doctorate in business from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
He currently serves as IG Certified International Facilitator and a professor of graduate programs at national and international level. He is also a Director of Internationalization at the Universidad Privada Boliviana and an Academic Director of graduate programs.
In addition to his academic work, Agreda serves as the Executive Director of Garcia Agreda Corp, a company focused on the development of companies and entrepreneurs with a global vision.
Armando Borda
Country Representative,
Peru
Armando Borda
Armando Borda is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Business at ESAN University, where he also served as director of International Relations.
Borda obtained his Ph.D. from Florida International University in 2012 and, since then, he has published his research in journals such as JWB, JIBS, JBR, MBR. his areas of interest are internationalization, performance, business groups, and reputation in the context of emerging market firms.
Borda has served as both a local and a conference chair for AIB-LAC’s chapter meetings in 2017 and 2018 respectively.