Chairman Emeritus
  Churchill G. Carey, Jr

  Chairperson
  Loren Ferré-Rangel

  Vice-Chair
  Ginoris López-Lay

  Director
  Francisco Uriarte

  Director
  Jacques Chappuis

  Director
  Lucilla Fuller Marvel

  Director
  Enrique Vila-Biaggi

  Director
 Pinsy Rivera

  President
  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]


LorenFerré-Rangel, Chairperson

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]


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]


Francisco J. Uriarte-Otheguy, Director
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 Guayacan, 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]


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]


Miguel A. Soto-Class, President

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; the Advisory Council for the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico; and the YouthSave Advisory Board at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. He was selected as an Aspen Institute Ideas Fellow in 2008.

In 1999, Mike founded the Center for the New Economy (CNE), Puerto Rico’s first think-tank. CNE is an independent, nonprofit, research and policy development organization dedicated to promoting innovative economic development strategies. In 2003 CNE 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 2003. 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 the Head of Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Morgan Stanley’s fund of fund and alternative investment solutions group. Prior to his current role, he was Head of Alternative Investments for Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management Group responsible for all aspects of the alternative investments platform including Morgan Stanley’s industry-leading managed futures fund of fund business and customized hedge fund portfolio business.

Before joining Morgan Stanley, Jacques was Head of Alternative Investments for Citigroup’s Global Wealth Management Group and prior to that a Managing Director at Citigroup Alternative Investments. In both roles, Jacques’ responsibilities spanned the spectrum of alternative investments including hedge funds, private equity, and real estate, among others. Previously, Jacques was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on the financial services sector, and an investment banker at Bankers Trust Company. Jacques received an MBA, with honors, from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a BA in finance from Tulane University.

[back to top]


Enrique J. Vila-Biaggi, Director

Enrique began his professional career with Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) in Miami, FL, where he managed reengineering projects for multinational corporations such as Volvo and Burger King, as well as government projects for Dade County in Miami. In 1999, he began working at Vila del Corral & Company, managing reengineering projects for companies such as Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and South American Restaurants, Inc. Once in Puerto Rico, he began to immerse himself in the real estate environment by involving himself in the real estate developments his family had at the time. He became VP of Operations at Professional Offices Park, with responsibilities that included project management, construction management, marketing, operations, and tenant relations. In 2004, he decided to venture out on his own, creating iedifiko, Inc. a Building and Facilities Management Company. In September 2005, Caribbean Business ranked iedifiko, Inc. as the #1 Office Building Management Company in Puerto Rico.

Enrique assists in several organizations as a member of their Board of Directors, none more important than Proyecto Niños de Nueva Esperanza, where he serves as its President since April 2009.

Enrique has a B.A. graduated in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a M.A. in Engineering Management, both from Cornell University.