ANNUAL RISK CONFERENCE | JAR 2023

Felipe Suárez is the Executive Vice President of Integrated Risk Management at Banco Popular, where he has worked since 2012. Previously he was a partner at McKinsey&Co., leading projects in the Financial Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean for more than 10 years. He is a specialist in risk management, corporate finance and strategy for financial institutions. Felipe is an economist with a master’s in economics from the Universidad de Los Andes and earned a master’s in business administration (MBA) at New York University.

With a career of more than a decade in the field of risk management, she currently leads Risk Management, Quality and Compliance as Chief Risk Officer at Empresa Generadora de Electricidad Haina, the main mixed-capital (public and private) company in the Dominican Republic.

Antonia is an Industrial Engineer from the Universidad de los Andes, a Specialist in risks and insurance from the Universidad Externado in Colombia, and is certified in Risk Management and Crisis Management. Previously, she led the ERM practice for Latin America at Marsh Advisory, where for more than 10 years she was a strategic risk consultant. She also led the Central America and Caribbean Cluster for Marsh Advisory’s risk consulting services.

Her professional career has focused on Corporate Risk Management, Internal Control, Crisis Management, Business Continuity Management, and the design and implementation of the ISO 31000, COSO ERM and COSO Internal Control frameworks, linking them with other management systems such as ISO 9001 Quality Management, among others.

From 2016 to 2019, she led the annual publication of Marsh Risk Consulting and RIMS - The Risk and Insurance Management Society - in Latin America, the Risk Management Benchmark ‘REIMAGINE RISK’. She has been a speaker for RIMS in its Latin America chapter.

Currently Risk Manager at Alpha Inversiones, she holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC). She is also finishing her MBA at Barna Management School and has broadened her education through courses at INALDE Business School. During her studies, she took part in a Student Mobility program at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Throughout her career, she has served as Secretary and currently holds the position of Chair of the Risk Committee at the Brokerage Firms Association (APB).

Moderator.

Economist with a Master’s in Financial Management from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with a dual degree from Université Bordeaux IV, Bordeaux, France, and a graduate of the Management Development Program at Barna Management School. He holds the following certifications: ISO 31000 Risk Manager, International Certification in Integrated Risk Management from Nemesis Risk, Certified Financial Services Auditor (CFSA), AML/CA, among others.

He has experience in private banking, holding executive roles in audit and integrated risk management, as well as in the Monetary and Financial Administration, where he was responsible for monitoring the risks of regulated entities.

Panel: Regulatory expectations for risk management

Cedeño Brea is a lawyer specializing in economics and financial regulation and holds a PhD in Law and Economics, a graduate of the universities of Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bologna (2017).

He holds master’s degrees in Law and Finance (MSc) from Queen Mary, University of London (2012), and in Banking Law and Financial Regulation (LLM) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008), and also has a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).

He served as Deputy Manager of Regulation and Innovation at the Superintendency of Banks of the Dominican Republic, in charge of the departments of Regulation, Innovation and Financial Regulation, Registrations and Authorizations, Anti-Money Laundering, Sanctions and Economic Studies, and coordinated the technical committee of that supervisory body.

Víctor Livio Enmanuel Cedeño Brea is a university professor and was vice rector of Research at the OMG Institute. He is also a researcher and author of academic studies and articles. He has been legal and economic advisor to important financial institutions and national and international firms.

He has also provided consulting and training for global banks on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, with more than one hundred trainings delivered internationally, in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

He is a Lawyer, Insurance Specialist from the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), a specialist in regulatory matters for insurance companies, health risk administrators (ARS), insurance brokers and insurance sector associations (Anti-Money Laundering Certified Associate, Florida International Bankers Association (FIBA) and Florida International University (FIU)).

He has 20 years of experience in different areas of law, with specialties in Insurance Law, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing, Forensic Practice in Financial Crimes and Offenses, as well as labor, commercial and criminal law.

He is certified by the Insurance Superintendency as an authorized trainer to teach Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing to the entire insurance sector.

He was teaching coordinator of the diploma in Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing. He worked as Advisor and Consultant for various companies, including BMI Seguros, Atrio Seguros, Humano Seguros, La Colonial de Seguros, Amigo Compañías de Seguros and Segna Compañía de Seguros, and as Consulting Member of the Analysis and Consultation Commission of Law 146-02 on Insurance and Bonds of the Dominican Republic for its amendment and adaptation to current trends.

He was also an advisor to the Presidency of the Institute for defining the legal area and following up on regulatory processes of the Insurance, Banking and Commerce Institute of Puerto Rico. He was appointed at the Insurance Superintendency as Superintendent’s Deputy for Insurance by Decree 388-20 issued by the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader Corona.

Bachelor’s in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, with master’s degrees in Economic Policy (University of Illinois, United States), Finance and Financial Legislation (University of London, United Kingdom) and Applied Economics (Universidad Católica Santo Domingo). He has various specializations in macroprudential policy, financial econometrics, financial inclusion and financial risks.

He currently serves as Director of the Department of Regulation and Financial Stability at the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, an institution where he has a 15-year career. During that time he has taken part in designing prudential regulatory policies and policies on access to financing, among them the Draft Law on Reciprocal Guarantees, the Law on Movable Guarantees, and the amendments to the Asset Evaluation, Integrated Risk Management and Corporate Governance Regulations, among other rules linked to the functioning of the financial and foreign exchange system.

He also took part in carrying out the First Financial Education and Culture Survey (2015), in designing the Strategic Plan for Economic and Financial Education (2018), in conducting the First Financial Inclusion Survey (2019) and in preparing the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2022).

In economic research, he has specialized in financial stability, financial inclusion and market architecture, collaborating with international organizations such as the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) and has been awarded on several occasions the Juan Pablo Duarte Library Economics Prize, granted by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.

A lawyer who graduated from UNIBE. She was a French Government scholar and recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship from the US Department of State. She holds master’s degrees in Administrative Law and Public Economic Law. She is a specialist in regulatory, administrative, banking and telecommunications law.

She is a court interpreter, is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese and has knowledge of German and Italian. She is a member of the Global Shapers community, part of the World Economic Forum, and is also the country representative for the Global Dignity organization and a member of HYPIA, The International Association of Hyperpolyglots.

She is the founder of VoxMujer, an initiative for generating and positioning women’s opinion. She was recently named by Forbes Magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in the region.

Moderator.

Omar Bairan has more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector. He is certified as a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute.

He earned an MBA at Florida International University (FIU). He also completed a Master’s in Economic Legislation and Corporate Law and obtained his law degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).

He currently serves as Vice President of Legal Advisory and Regulatory Compliance at Banco Múltiple Santa Cruz, S.A. He is also chair of the Legal Committee of the Dominican Republic Banks Association (ABA).

He has also taught for more than 15 years at several universities, teaching subjects related to Financial Markets, Risk Management and Financial Mathematics.