Panelist biographies

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  Juan Camilo Beltrán

  Executive President, Chamber of Commerce of Bucaramanga, Colombia

  Mr. Beltran has been the Executive President of the Chamber of Commerce of Bucaramanga since 2010. From 2008 to 2010 he directed the National Federation of Traders in Santander – FENALCO. During 2005 and 2007 he was the Regional Manager of Marketing and Sales of an important Colombian postal Service. He also has experience as real state commercial managing, among others. In the academic field, in addition to his studies, he has carried out leadership courses in economic growth with Harvard University (2015), programs of entrepreneurship at Babson University (Boston, Massachusetts, 2015), international leadership programs and globalized economy in Spain (2013) and Chile (2011). In other executive positions, He was the president of the board of the Chambers of Commerce Confederation in Colombia CONFECÁMARAS until this year and currently is the president of the board of Invest in Santander, Bucaramanga Convention Bureau, Events and Tradeshows Center CENFER and metropolitan aqueduct member of the board.
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  Marcelo Giugale

  Senior Economic Adviser, Cluster of Global Practices for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, The World Bank

  An international development leader, and a former Director of country, regional, and global Departments, his twenty-six years of experience span the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin-America, and Africa, where he led senior-level policy dialogue and over thirty billion dollars in lending operations across the development spectrum. A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, he has published on macroeconomic policy, finance, subnational fiscal rules, development economics, business, agriculture, and applied econometrics. Notably, he was the chief editor of collections of policy notes published for the presidential transitions in Mexico (2000), Colombia (2002), Ecuador (2003), Bolivia (2006) and Peru (2006). A citizen of Argentina and Italy, he holds a PhD and a MSc in Economics from The London School of Economics, and a Summa-Cum-Laude BA in Economics from Universidad Católica Argentina.
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  Dr. Christian H. M. Ketels

  President for TCI, Harvard Business School, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness

  Dr. Christian Ketels is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, where he leads Prof. Michael E. Porter’s research team. Dr. Ketels holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and honorary professor at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel (Germany). He has led cluster and competitiveness projects in many countries and regions, advised a wide range of governments, research institutions, and international organizations on strategy and growth, and served on a range of government commissions in Germany, Sweden, and the European Union. Dr. Ketels is President of TCI, the global professional network for practitioners and organizations in cluster-based economic development, and co-editor of the Competitiveness Review, an academic journal dedicated to the competitiveness of locations.
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  Tracey A. Nichols

  Director of Economic Development - City of Cleveland

  Tracey Nichols was appointed Director of Economic Development in February 2008 after serving seventeen years at Cuyahoga County, with the last four as Assistant Director of Economic Development. Since joining the City, Nichols has led her team to complete over 630 projects that will create over 13,000 new jobs and retain over 8,500 jobs. Her efforts have resulted in $152.5 million in new grants or pass-through loan funding. Nichols is well known for creating new, innovative programs, such as the Vacant Property Initiative, which has resulted in over 2.6 million square feet of space in vacant buildings and 85 acres of vacant land being returned to productive use, creating and retaining over 5,900 jobs. Nichols has a degree in Business Management, concentrating in Accounting and Finance, from Case Western Reserve University and has the National Development Council’s certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional.
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  Prof. Henry Overman

  Director, What Works Center for Local Economic Growth, London School of Economics, Department of Geography and Environment

  Henry Overman, BSc. (Bristol), Msc. (LSE), PhD. (LSE), AcSS, FRSA is Professor of Economic Geography in the department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. From 2008 to 2013 he directed the BIS/ESRC/WG funded Spatial Economics Research Centre. From September 2013 he is director of the new BIS/CLG/ESRC What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. He has provided policy advice to, amongst others, the European Commission, Department for International Development, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport, HM Treasury, the Manchester Independent Economic Review, the North East Independent Economic Review and Cambridgeshire County Council. He is a member of the Manchester Economic Advisory Panel and is also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Performance and the Centre for Economic Policy Research.