Carlos Ramos de la Vega is the Director of Venture Capital at LAVCA. In this role, Carlos coordinates the organization’s relationships with venture investors, maintains the LatAm Venture Bulletin, the industry’s leading source of VC/tech news in the region, and supports the generation of products and services for Latin America’s venture capital community. Carlos is also on the Mexican Council of Foreign Relations (COMEXI), where he was nominated to aid in building bridges between Mexico and other global markets.

Prior to joining LAVCA, Carlos was an Analyst within the Mergers & Acquisition Group in UBS based in New York, where he was responsible for the analysis and due diligence of cross-border transactions between the United States and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining UBS, Carlos was a consultant for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) and Microsoft supporting the production of “Mexico’s ITC Entrepreneurs”, a comprehensive study of the state of the technology ecosystem in Mexico aimed at fostering public-private partnerships and institutional cooperation.

Carlos also served as the Coordinator for the Mexican Stock Exchange’s integration into the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA) and led the development of the technology innovation index used by UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology as a benchmark to support the University’s network-wide strategic initiatives.

Carlos is an Ambassador for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO). He received his B.S. in Economics with honors distinction and Minors in Industrial Engineering and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Paulo is a Managing Partner at Valor, responsible for the firm’s Growth Equity business. He is an investor with 16 years of experience. His areas of focus are growth equity and special situations. He has invested in private and public companies in a variety of asset classes: tech, listed companies, private equities, private credit, public credit, infrastructure and real estate.

Previously, Paulo was a Managing Investment Partner of SoftBank’s LatAm Funds ($8Bn). He helped build that effort from 7 people to a team of 60 investment and business professionals. Paulo served on the boards of Quinto Andar (prop tech), VTEX (e-commerce software; publicly traded), Creditas (fintech), Olist (commerce software), Afya (education; publicly traded), MadeiraMadeira (e-commerce), CRM & Bonus (software), InCode (onboarding software), Unico (onboarding software), Descomplica (education), Pet Love (e-commerce), Buser (transportation), and a board observer of Loggi (logistics), Glorify (social media) and Hashdex (fintech).

Prior to SoftBank, Paulo was a Managing Director responsible for Emerging Markets investments at Third Point where he built a very successful franchise of helping companies go public, identifying them early and assisting CEOs and owners in the process alongside Third Point’s investments. He invested across the capital structure in public equity and debt securities. 

Before joining Third Point, Paulo helped build the Eton Park special situations effort in Latin America where he sourced, executed and monitored private minority investments in the region. He served on the board of ERSA, a renewable energy platform, SDI, a warehouse real estate joint-venture, and RCB, a consumer credit platform. 

Paulo started his career at Morgan Stanley doing mostly M&A transactions in Brazil. After he did a joint-degree at Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar) and the Kennedy School. He obtained his undergrad from FGV in business and finance in São Paulo. 

He is married and resides in NY. Paulo has a daughter and a son and is an avid kite surfer, enjoys tennis, biking and volleyball. Paulo serves on the board of LALA – Latin American Leadership Academy and is an active participant of Fundacao Estudar.

Christine Kenna is a Partner at IGNIA, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in global technology companies that are reinventing the way to do business across Latin America in sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, edtech, and SaaS. Christine currently serves on Boards for IGNIA’s portfolio and is an independent Board Member of ALSEA and the Kauffman Fellows. Christine has been investing for the last 15 years to build an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, and professional women in Latin America. She is a Co-Founder of Mujeres Invirtiendo, MBA Mujeres de México, and started the ESG committee as a Board member of the Mexican Association of Private Capital (AMEXCAP). Christine was recognized as one of the top female investors in Latin America by the Latin American Venture Capital Association. She was also featured among Bloomberg's Top 50 Women of Impact in LatAm 2023. Prior to joining IGNIA, Christine led operations in EF Education First, Google, the Guggenheim Foundation, and EY Parthenon.  Christine graduated from Duke University, has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a Kauffman Fellow, joining an international network of venture capitalists focused on accelerating innovation through smart, connected capital. 

Ben manages Clocktower Technology Ventures and is responsible for all of Clocktower Group’s private market activities.

Ben was previously Director, Investment Associate Program for Bridgewater Associates, where he worked with the firm’s CIOs on strategic priorities, talent development and research. Ben began his career as a VC and private equity investor with Wasserstein Perella. Ben also co-founded Artivest fka Resonance Funds, an online issuer of actively-managed exchange traded vehicles, as well as Waterfall Mobile. Ben holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in philosophy from Yale University. Ben lives in Bel Air with his wife and two young children.

Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and Head of SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. He brings more than 20 years of experience banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide.

In his roles, Andy manages SVB’s relationships with venture capital and private equity firms outside the U.S., helps emerging market technology companies as they seek U.S. market entry, and U.S. companies as they seek to expand abroad. In both capacities, Tsao provides these firms with strategic advice and banking services, including debt financing, based on a deep understanding of their needs.

Previously, Andy led and helped found SVB’s U.K.-based operation, SVB Financial Group UK Ltd, which was established in 2004, Andy is on the boards of TiE Silicon Valley, Asia America MultiTechnology Association Silicon Valley, Asia Society of Northern California, and BayBrazil. Tsao earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Boston University.