Santiago Center’s Advisory Board Meets

March 28, 2018

Center’s Advisory Board (AB) Meeting

The Center’s Advisory Board (AB) met on March 28 in a lively and fruitful discussion hosted by AB member Peter Morse, Chief of Staff to the Vice Chairman at Banco de Chile. The gathering was attended by eight other members, all Columbia alumni, including Verónica Cabezas (TC10), Professor of Education at Universidad Católica; Diego Flores (MPA12), Head of the Protected Areas Department at the Ministry of the Environment; Claudia Heiss (GF03): Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Affairs at Universidad de Chile; Andrea Insunza (JN13): Professor of Journalism at Universidad Diego Portales; Francisco Díaz (GSAPP13), Professor of Architecture at Universidad Católica; Paula Pacheco (MPA12), a Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Chile; Juan Somavía (IA98), Manager of External Affairs and Government Relations at Anglo American Copper; Conrad Von Igel (MPA07), Managing Director of the Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center at Universidad Católica; Jenny Mager (MPA12), Head of the Mitigation and Emission Inventories Department at the Ministry of the Environment., and newly appointed Georges De Bourguignon (MBA/MIA17), Corporate Development Vice President at Quiñenco S.A.

In addition, the Center invited two special guests, also alumni, who work closely with Columbia: Manuel Blanco (LLM96), Senior Partner at Aninat Schwencke & Cia.; and Francisco Guzmán (LLM10), a partner at Carey Law firm.

During the meeting, the Santiago Center Director reviewed past and current public, programs, research activities and education exchanges, and discussed major initiatives such as the upcoming May event featuring the Columbia Business School’s Executive Education Team. Andrea Insunza and Claudia Heiss explained the role they have played in implementing projects associated with the series "The Future of Journalism" and the "Annual Meeting of Public Policies 2017" held in Santiago and New York, respectively, as well as their results in terms of their impact in Chile, networking opportunities between Campus faculty and local counterparts, and future prospects for these joint-ventures.

After reviewing the Center’s budget allocated to programming, faculty exchanges and research activities, AB members proposed several ideas, including implementing a multi-disciplinary program roster focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Their suggestion was to examine how Chile is working towards reaching those goals from the legal, political, gender, education, energy aspects, not only focusing at one at a time as we do now but from a broader perspective. They also suggested the Center opens-up a Call for Proposals targeting local alumni, in which any of them who wish to participate by submitting a project should commit to match the funding. It would be open to all scholarly and academic areas, must entail the participation of a Columbia faculty member or researcher, and have a local institutional partner (academic, NGO, Business).

Other AB members suggested the Center should work closely with the nascent Chile Columbia Club, put a stronger focus on themes associated with Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and getting involved in new research projects sponsored by Chile’s Economic Development Agency (CORFO). All AB members enthusiastically volunteered to lead efforts in these and other areas.

All attendees were delighted to continue supporting the Center and agreed that the AB should meet more frequently. Conrad Von Igel offered to host the next meeting at the Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center at Universidad Católica.

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