Chairman Emeritus
  Churchill G. Carey, Jr


  Chairman of the Board
  Francisco Uriarte


  Vice-Chair
  Ginoris López-Lay


  Vice-Chair
  LorenFerré-Rangel




  Director
  Jacques Chappuis


  Director
  Lucilla Fuller Marvel


  Director
  Omar Haedo


  Director
  William Lockwood Benet


  Executive Director
  Miguel A. Soto-Class



Churchill G. Carey, Jr., Chairman Emeritus

Churchill Carey was associated with the mortgage banking industry of Puerto Rico for the last 30 years as President, CEO, and from 1991-1995 as sole stockholder of Home Mortgage Company and its predecessors. During his tenure as President, Home Mortgage Company was the largest mortgage banking company in the Caribbean. Mr. Carey has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America from 1984-1988. He was also a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Puerto Rico where he served on its board from 1974 to 1995 and as its president on three occasions. He was a member of the Board of Governors of United Way International as well as United Way of Puerto Rico where he served as President of its Executive Committee, Campaign Chairman, and Chairman of its Board of Governors. He has served on the boards of several other organizations including Habitat for Humanity, the Cantera Peninsula Project, and the Puerto Rico Growth and Income Fund. Mr. Carey has a B.A., cum laude, from Yale College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

[back to top]


Lucilla Fuller Marvel, Director

Lucilla Fuller Marvel, AICP, PPL, has more than 30 years of experience in urban and social planning, housing and community development in Puerto Rico. Since establishing Taller de Planificación Social (Social Planning Workshop), a consulting firm, in 1973, she has worked with community organizations, private entities, and city and state governments in the preparation of needs analysis, social sector studies, housing plans, and strategic plans. She has prepared the social and housing plans for many communities, including La Perla, the Cantera Peninsula, Gandul, and most recently the Housing Plan for the Martin Peña Canal Comprehensive Development Plan in San Juan. Ms. Marvel co-founded the non- profit Puerto Rico Housing Network in 1996.

Ms. Marvel recently completed an "Inventory of 150 Urban Spontaneous Settlement Communities of Puerto Rico" for the Office of Special Communities, and is the author of numerous publications on planning and community development in Puerto Rico. As part of Housing Workshop, Inc, she worked on the development of Parque Victoria, a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Project in the Cantera Peninsula.

Ms. Marvel obtained her BA in Architectural Sciences from Radcliffe College in 1957 and a Masters Degree in Planning from the Graduate School of Planning of the University of Puerto Rico in 1972. A licensed planner, she received the Puerto Rico Planning Society Outstanding Professional Planner Award in 1997. Ms. Marvel was Professor of Social and Urban Planning at the Graduate School of Planning of the University of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1984. Currently her civic activities include Habitat for Humanity of Puerto Rico where as President of the Board she oversaw the completion of Habitat's first projects in Puerto Rico. She is a member of the Board of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.


[back to top]


Omar Haedo, Director
An entrepreneur and experienced professional, Mr. Haedo founded IKON Benefits Group, Inc., in 1998.  As Managing Principal, he oversees a thriving $10mm annual revenue firm with over 65 employees and over $300mm in Premiums underwritten.  Impacting the client’s productivity, and improving the insured benefit experience are key drivers, as well as IKON’s values and cultural contract.  IKON’s value proposition involves connecting a series of highly detailed and complex activities, working in concert and properly communicated to drive results.  As HR and employee benefit regulations continue to increase in complexity worldwide, IKON fulfills a vital need in the marketplace by providing direction for compliance with regulations, reporting and benefit plan outsourcing programs. Mr. Haedo’s career prior to IKON includes the positions of Client Manager and New Business Manager for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean at CIGNA Health Care, from 1990 through 1998 and Health Underwriter at CIGNA from 1987-1990.He is the recipient of several awards which document a commitment to excellence, to customer satisfaction and to the relentless aspiration to create and add value, most notably the recent Executive of the Year in the Service Area by the Puerto Rico Manufacturers’ Association in 2003 as well as serving in the National Financial Partner’s Benefits Advisory Board.  He holds a Group Benefit Associate recognition for achievement from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, which is associated with the Wharton School of Business.Mr. Haedo’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit embody IKON’s growth and sustainable values in the PR Benefits market.
[back to top]


Francisco J. Uriarte-Otheguy, Chairman

Francisco J. Uriarte has practiced in several business arenas and has 17 years of combined experience in the areas of Corporate and Entrepreneurial Finance, Strategy, Marketing, Operations. Francisco is President of ESP Group, a business and financial advisory firm in Puerto Rico since June of 2006.

Francisco started his career as an engineer at Eli Lilly Industries, Inc., a United States pharmaceutical corporation. From 1993 through 1994, he was Plant Manager at Anclo Norte, S.A., a Mexican construction supplies manufacturer. In 1994, he opened and headed the Puerto Rico Government Commercial Office in Mexico until 1995, when he came to Puerto Rico to head the Office of the Caribbean Basin Initiative until 1996. In 1996, he was named Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Development Fund, where he supervised a $50 million credit enhancement fund aimed at the development of new tourism-related properties in Puerto Rico. In 1998, he was named Executive Director at Grupo Guayacán, a private not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering and developing a vibrant market for Private Equity in Puerto Rico which is committed to supporting the development of a rapidly growing community of Global Entrepreneurs. While at Grupo Guayacan, Mr. Uriarte oversaw two geographically diversified funds that invest in United States and international venture partnerships, while familiarizing local institutional investors with the private equity asset class and started the Puerto Rico Venture Forum, a support group that provides entrepreneurial companies with technical assistance and help identifying sources of venture capital. Also in 1998, he co-founded Prolac, Inc., a local dairy processor that sold a family of white cheese products to the local food retail trade and together with his wife, grew sales five-fold and sold the business in 2002. In 2002, he co-founded together with a group of local investors, and served as President and CEO, Supermercados Máximo, Inc. until he sold his participation in May 2006.

Supermercados Máximo, Inc. is a local start-up that acquired the assets of six supermarket stores that Wal-Mart was forced to divest from the Wal-Mart/Amigo merger. At his departure, SuperMax was profitable and ranked 9th in the locally owned supermarket chain list in Puerto Rico. Also in 2002, he co-founded Qualitas, Inc., a local real estate holding and management company.

Francisco serves in the Boards of Qualitas, Inc., EnterPrize, Inc. and Grupo Guayacán, Inc., Chairs the Board of The Center for the New Economy, a private, non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization dedicated to developing and promoting policies of Economic Growth for Puerto Rico and Chairs the Board of Asociación de Residentes de Torrimar, Inc.

Francisco has a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters Degree in Finance from the Inter American University in Puerto Rico. He’s a graduate of various executive programs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Entrepreneurial Development), Northwestern University (Equity Valuation and Credit Analysis), the National Venture Capital Institute and the National Business Incubation Association. He is a registered professional engineer in Puerto Rico, a Series 65 Registered Investment Advisor and a NACVA Accredited Valuation Analyst.


[back to top]


LorenFerré-Rangel, Vice-Chair

María Lorenza Ferré Rangel (Loren) is currently the Vice President of the New Products Division for El Día, Inc. Previously, she was the Sunday Magazines & Lifestyle Editor overseeing the production of the weekly Sunday magazines, Revista Domingo, de Viaje, Mi Pequeño Día , Magacín and the daily lifestyle sections Por Dentro, Cultura y Flash.

Before joining El Nuevo Día, Loren held the position of Cross Selling and Marketing Director for Grupo Ferré Rangel. She was responsible for coordinating effective sales and marketing strategies for key customer accounts and clients using the GFR services: media, printing, telemarketing, direct marketing and recycling among others. In addition, she oversaw the Group’s marketing strategies.

Previous to this position, Ferré was Assistant General Manager at Primera Hora, supervising business operations and in particular, the Marketing Department, the Commercial Supplements Section, and the women’s editorial pages.

Her work at Primera Hora began in 1997 as Marketing Manager, overseeing the strategy of introducing the newspaper into the market. She organized all advertising and public relations efforts, and the implementation of aggressive media tours and promotional strategies. In October 2000, the Sales and Marketing Association selected Ferré and the newspaper for the Award in Marketing Excellence.

Since 1996 and while at Primera Hora, Ferré functioned as owner representative in the development and leasing of City View Plaza, a 156,000 sq. ft. retail and commercial project. She was actively involved in the design, bidding process and construction management of the site.

Ferré is Trustee of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico. She is Director of the Center for the New Economy. She collaborates with the Ponce Art Museum and is Vice-President and Director of the Ferré Rangel Family Foundation.

María Lorenza Ferré graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of the Holy Cross. She holds a Masters of Arts and a Graduate Degree in Museum Studies from Boston University. After completing her postgraduate work, she continued her studies in New York where she completed a design career, graduating with honors from the New York School of Design.


[back to top]


Ginoris López-Lay, Vice-Chair

Ginoris López-Lay Vizcarra has over 18 years of experience in the fields of banking and marketing. She is the founder of Resolve Consulting, a strategic planning and marketing firm, and currently serves as FirstBank’s Senior Vice President and Director of Retail Financial Services.

Before joining FirstBank, López-Lay worked for Banco Popular, where she held numerous positions over her 16 year tenure. As a Financial Analyst for the Finance and Strategic Planning Group, she lend analytical support to the Strategic Planning, Finance, Marketing, Public Relations, Human Resources, and Commercial Real Estate divisions; as Vice President of Strategic Planning, she developed numerous successful strategies, including the design and launching of Puerto Rico’s highest volume transactional website.

In 1998, she was named Senior Vice President and Manager of the Strategic Planning and Marketing Division. Among her achievements during this period were the launching of the loyalty program PREMIA, which obtained over one hundred thousand members during its first 12 months, and the strategy development and establishment of Ticketpop, an electronic ticket sales and processing program. In addition, as the person responsible for ensuing Business Knowledge, Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction at Popular, López-Lay led customer satisfaction initiatives and developed a brand repositioning strategy, managing to improve the bank’s competitiveness and perception as a financial institution. She also established the business knowledge function, which provided the Market Investigation division support in the decision-making process and the marketing investment analysis.

López-Lay is a vice chairman of the Center for the New Economy since 2005. She has also serves as Chairman of the Marketing Committee and advisor to the Board of Trustees of the Sacred Heart University.

Ginoris Lopez-Lay Vizcarra has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Michigan.


[back to top]


William Lockwood Benet, Director

William Lockwood-Benet is an economic development and finance executive specialized in industrial and fiscal strategy, biosciences, new ventures, private equity and economic policy innovation. He is the Founder and CEO of Lockwood Financial Advisors, a strategy advisor and project manager to financial institutions, capital markets development, new ventures and private infrastructure since 1993, and of Generans Bioventures, an interdisciplinary biosciences group, working with global biotech and pharma leaders since 2000 on US, PR, Singapore and Irish strategies for new ventures, emerging company alliances, portfolio management, intellectual property, taxation, corporate strategy, equity analysis, early stage financing and clinical infrastructure.

During 2005 he served as President of the Government Development Bank for PR, responsible for all US municipal bond investor and credit rating agency relations and public sector financial and fiscal management, to address the central government structural deficit, adjustment measures to the previous economic and fiscal overheating period, the fiscal impact of pharma multinational activity and the adoption of financial controls and governance changes to existing fiscal institutions, including development, adoption and monitoring of a multi-year fiscal strategy, a new sales tax-backed bond issuance authority, and a master policy for derivative financial products. As GDB President he was also a Director of Verizon-controlled PR Telephone Company (now Telmex) and responsible for the sale of remaining government equity to benefit the PR Employee Retirement System.

From 1987 to 1993 he served as VP and Assistant to three GDB Presidents and as the Economic Development Bank’s first VP for Planning and Economic Research, responsible for private sector credits, industrial policy, entrepreneurship training programs and multinational taxation; telecom privatization; new perpetual trusts for education and infrastructure; central government, municipalities, higher education and utilities bond issuance; investor relations at GDB New York and GDB transition affairs after the 1992 elections. He also served at the Governor’s Chief of Staff Office, Governor’s Economic Advisory Council, Department of State, PR Planning Board, PR Industrial Development Company and under Teodoro Moscoso, founder of Operation Bootstrap, US Ambassador to Venezuela and Director of the Alliance for Progress under President Kennedy.

Mr. Lockwood is an investor in SmartOrg, an investment and decision analysis expert group in Menlo Park.  He is also a Director, former Chairman and Founding Treasurer of Grupo Guayacán, an entrepreneurship training leader and private equity manager in PR and a former Secretary of the PR Community Foundation and the Association of US Pharmaceutical CFOs operating in PR.

A graduate of Brown University’s Thomas Watson Institute and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, England, he specialized in the financial, fiscal and industrial technology strategies of Singapore and Ireland. He attends the MIT Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry, MIT-Sloan Entrepreneurship Development Programs, and Kellogg Business School’s Biotechnology and Corporate Finance Executive Programs. He is also trained in project management, credit and decision analysis.


[back to top]


Miguel A. Soto-Class, Secretary/Treasurer, Executive Director

Mike Soto has had a wide range of experience in both the private and public sectors. In the private sector he has worked at law firms in Puerto Rico and the U.S. and in the banking sector as Assistant to the President of a bank in San Juan. He has also worked in the non-profit sector with California Rural Legal Assistance in San Francisco and has been involved with United Way and the Boys and Girls Clubs, where he served as a Board member, in Puerto Rico. In the Public Sector he has served as an appointed member of the Policy Group drafting a gubernatorial campaign platform and as Director of Public Policy and Legal Counsel in the Senate of Puerto Rico.

Mike has a B.A. from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University.

He is a past appointee by the Governor of Puerto Rico to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service in Puerto Rico and to the Advisory Board of the Department of the Family. He has also been appointed by the President of the University of Puerto Rico to serve on the Board of Directors for the University Press. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Baldwin School of Puerto Rico and of the Advisory Council for the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico. He is also a member of the Growing Wealth Working Group of the Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C.

In 1999, Mike founded the Center for the New Economy, Puerto Rico’s first think-tank. CNE is an independent, nonprofit, research and policy development organization dedicated to promoting innovative economic development strategies. In 1999, CNE became a grantee of the Ford Foundation. In 2003 the Center received the prestigious Zenith Award for Best Non-Profit from the Chamber of Commerce.

Mike has been a columnist for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest circulation daily, since 2004. His first book, The Economy of Puerto Rico: Restoring Growth, was published by the Brookings Institution in 2006.


[back to top]



Jacques Chappuis, Director

Jacques Chappuis is a Managing Director and Head of Alternative Investments for the Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2006, Mr. Chappuis was Head of Alternative Investments for Citigroup’s Global Wealth Management Group and prior to that a Managing Director at Citigroup Alternative Investments. Before joining Citigroup, Mr. Chappuis was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on the financial services sector and an investment banker at Bankers Trust Company. Mr. Chappuis received an MBA in finance, with honors, from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in finance from Tulane University.

[back to top]