Management Team and Structure

Lumni Inc

Lumni Inc is a Deleware C-Corp which serves as a holding company for subsidiary corporations based in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and the US.

Felipe Vergara (Co-Founder and CEO) has a degree in Industrial Engineering from Universidad De Los Andes in Colombia and has launched four companies in the education and finance industries. He received his MBA in finance from Wharton before joining McKinsey & Company as a consultant in their New York office. Felipe was recognized by Ashoka as a Leading Social Entrepreneur and Global Fellow in 2006, elected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2009, named one of America’s 25 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by Business Week in 2009, won the Poder - ABC 2010 Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneuship Award for Latin America in 2011 and the UBS Global Social Venture Lab Competition in 2011 as well.

Estela Lavin (C.O.O.)

Estela co-founded the microfinance unit of Banigualdad, a Chilean bank that provides financial services to the base of the pyramid. Estela developed Banigualdad’s microfinance unit to a size of 21,000 clients, making it one of the main and most efficient microfinance institutions of Chile. In 2007 El Mercurio elected Estela as one of the 100 Women Leaders of Chile and in 2008 Revista Poder voted her one of the "20 young leaders of Chile". Estela has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Catolica de Chile and an MPA (Candidate) at Universidad del Desarrollo.

Miguel Palacios (Co-Founder and Head of R&D) is Assistant Professor of Finance at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. He received his PHD from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and was a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Miguel has authored numerous works on the subject of financing human capital including “Investing in Human Capital” (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and has consulted for the World Bank on the topic.

Mario Cerón (IT Director)

holds a BS in Electrical Engineering (1996) from Los Andes University. Prior to Lumni, Mario has 15 years of experience on web development, IT management and consulting at Rabinovici & Associates, Zemoga Inc, Banco de Credito and Porvenir. Mario’s IT interests include Consulting, Project Management, state of art of IT technologies and frameworks (Open source, .NET, Oracle) and Computer Based Training. He worked in Lumni IT as Senior PHP developer of Lumni application software (Beta), prior to his work as IT Director. He supervises Lummi’s IT development / supports team in the four countries.

Lumni US

Cristina Mendia: (General Manager) Before joining Lumni, Cristina worked as a Commercial Associate at The Easton Group, as a Private Banker at Citibank, as Director of Marketing at Coral Rock Investments, Inc and as Commercial Lender at Sun Bank Miami. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she acquired a B.S.B.A. in Finance and International Management. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Lumni Mexico

Kirsha Carretero, (General Manager) On November 23, 2011, Kirsha Carretero was appointed General Manager of Lumni Mexico. Kirsha has served as Director of Client Experience at Scotiabank, as well as Head of Institutional Programs at IXE, where she created and implemented the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for the bank. Kirsha be also held the position of Quality Leader and Collections Supervisor at Credito Real. Kirsha has an MA in Communications from Centro de Estudios en Ciencia de la Comunicación and an MA in Corporate Social Responsibility from Universidad de Barcelona.

Claret Uribe, (Operations Coordinator) Claret was Organizational Culture Coordinator at FEMSA- Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma. She has a BA in International Relations from ITESM, where she graduated with Honors. Claret is a MA Candidate at Teacher´s College, Columbia University.

Lumni Colombia

Carolina Millan (General Manager) Carolina Millan was appointed General Manager for Lumni Colombia, effective as of March 1st 2012. Carolina has a strong background in corporate banking - ex Vice-President in ABN AMRO (Colombia and UK), RBS and Scotiabank. She holds a bachelor degree in finance and international relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and has a graduate degree in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).

Ana Maria Ramírez (Operations Coordinator) has worked as a Student Manager and Fund Manager of Lumni in Colombia before being promoted as Operations Coordinator. Ana Maria has a BA in Psychology from Universidad Javeriana and is currently pursuing a part time MBA at Universidad de los Andes.

Lumni Chile

Matías Valdivieso (General Manager) is a serial entrepreneur, having launched multiple businesses in the entertainment and importation sectors including, Old School, a market leader in the event management space. Prior to joining Lumni, he served as the Director of Education for the “Ideas for Public Policy” program of the Chilean think tank Libertadad y Desarrollo where he organized forums and seminars for promoting improvement in educational policy. Matias previously worked with the Moncuri Foundation to establish a Modal Education Center for rural Chile. As a student, he co-founded an organization that created opportunities for fellow students to volunteer in some of Chile’s poorest areas. Matías has an MS and a BS in Civil Industrial Engineering from University Diego Portales.

Ana Henriquez (Operations Coordinator)

Lumni Research

Miguel Palacios Head of Research

Juan David Herreño (Research Director)

holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and a BA in Economics from the in Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. Prior to Lumni, Juan David worked at the international investment desk of Porvenir, Colombia’s biggest pension fund. Juan's research interests include stochastic processes, human capital theory and applied microeconomic problems related to education and work decisions. He worked in Lumni Research as a Financial Model Analyst prior to his work as Research Director. He supervises Lumni’s Research production in the four countries and works on Lumni’s Human Capital Valuation model.