The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) will choose among the six final candidates for the new president of the institution to replace the economist Dante Mossi, whom United States legislators asked this year not endorse the position for lending money to Nicaragua.
The financial institution announced that, to make the selection of the new president transparent, hired the firm Heidrick & Struggles to choose the ideal shortlists among 243 applicants for the position, a process that closed on September 15.
The six finalists will go to the interview phase starting this October 23, and on November 19 the CABEI General Assembly will elect the new head, who will take office from December 1 at the bank’s headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to a renewable term of five years.
According to the bank, the selection of the shortlists has gone through “a rigorous competition process” with a high number of candidates that, thanks to the work of the hired firm, the process has been “transparent, with due publicity of the competition and, above all , the suitability of the candidates to perform the position”.
The finalists
Ana Guissella Sánchez MarotoCosta Rican, is an industrial engineer who has held senior positions in banking in Costa Rica, regional director of corporate relations at Florida Ice & Farm Company, president and CEO of the company Global Endeavors, her profile fits with the financial, banking and development policies.
Bernardo José Alfaro Araya, Costa Rican, is a civil engineer. He has experience as general manager of the National Bank of Costa Rica, general superintendent of financial entities and deputy general manager of Risk and Credit of the National Bank of Costa Rica, a profile honed in development, commercial banking, investment banking and credit supervision.
Celina María Padilla de O’ByrneSalvadoran, lawyer who has experience as president of the Board of Directors of the Banco Hipotecario de El Salvador and in intergovernmental relations of the state entity.
Enrique Alberto Cañas Jiménez, Salvadoran, experience head of the Financial Markets Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other positions within the World Bank. He is a professional enrolled in the financial sector, consulting, and investment and multilateral banking.
Hugo Rolando Noé Pino, Honduran, economist with experience as president of the Central Bank of Honduras, Secretary of Finance and executive director for Central America of the IDB, made the list of finalists for his credentials at the head of financial, multilateral and research entities.
Jaime Roberto Díaz PalaciosGuatemalan, economist prominent as a technical staff in the position of executive vice president of CABEI, advisor to the executive director of the World Bank and executive director of the National Competitiveness Program-PRONACOM, is characterized by his knowledge in financial development and the creation of political reforms.
Mossi’s departure
Outgoing President Dante Mossi visited Washington in March of this year and in a conversation in the US capital defended the open financing portfolio to the government of Nicaragua.
His visit raised the concerns of Washington, which began a diplomatic crusade from the federal legislature with letters sent to Central American governments to restrict loans to Nicaragua and veto Mossi’s position, shortly after the CABEI advertisement that would open the competition for a new owner.
Mossi said that only if the US sanctions regime on Nicaragua was expanded could it impact the financing portfolio. Currently, this bank is the largest lender to Daniel Ortega’s government with a portfolio of 1,586 million dollars, operating in some 33 projects.
“If the sanctions regime continues to increase (on Nicaragua) the bank would be increasingly limited in what it can or cannot finance, in an extreme case that there are high sanctions it would lead us to work on strictly humanitarian issues, basically that is our plan ”the owner then said.