Team
Felipe Vergara (Co-Founder and CEO),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 and received the Latin American Social Entrepreneurship Award from the World Economic Forum in 2011. Felipe holds a degree in industrial engineering fromUniversidad De Los Andes in Colombia.
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.
Noga Leviner (General Manager, Lumni USA) brought Lumni to the United States in 2008 and has led the company through its startup phase including legal and operational design, setting strategic direction, fundraising and business development, and testing the concept pilot. She previously worked as a Program Manager for Ashoka where she headed the organization's 60-country impact assessment program, conducted due diligence on the work of social entrepreneurs, and led or co-led the launch of a series of programs to identify and support social entrepreneurs including those pursuing financial services innovations. She holds a BA from Stanford University.
Luis Miguel Rubin (General Manager, Lumni Mexico)
Rodrigo Reynoso (Operations Director, Lumni Mexico) joined the Mexican team during its inception focused on operational design and supporting fundraising events. Prior to Lumni, he held financial and strategic planning positions at several governmental institutions in Mexico where he managed projects for the pension fund system and was responsible for the nation wide implementation of a re-insurance program for the international transference of agricultural risk. Rodrigo has been a part time professor at three top universities in Mexico where he taught seminars and lectured in economics. Rodrigo has a BA in economics from ITAM Mexico and a MA in economics from Cornell University.
Edna Salcedo (General Manager Lumni Colombia), has led Lumni Colombia through a high-growth period with a focus on operational design and excellence, and business development. Before becoming Lumni Colombia's General Manager, she worked as Lumni's Research Director and as a research analyst, supervising research development in all four countries and implementing substantial improvements to Lumni's valuation model. She has been involved in numerous research and social impact projects including co-creating a mathematics-tutoring network for low-income middle school low-income students. Edna has an MS and a BS in Industrial Engineering, and a BA in Economics from Los Andes University, where she graduated Cum Laude.
MatÃas Valdivieso (General Manager, Lumni Chile) 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. MatÃas has an MS and a BS in Civil Industrial Engineering from University Diego Portales.
Vanessa Velasquez (Operations Director, Lumni Chile) joined Lumni in 2010 after leaving an earlier post as Regional General Manager for the non profit un Techo para mi Pais in Central America. In that position she led the orgzniation’s commercial strategy, created regional alliances, and forming new local teams. She has also worked as a Revenue Management Analyst at Taca, where she evaluated and executed best price-strategy, and as a Process Analyst at Citibank. She has a BS in Economics in ESEN (Escuela Superior de Economia y Negocios), the top economics and business university in her native El Salvador.
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.
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 Estela was elected as one of the “100 Women Leaders of Chile†by El Mercurio and in 2008 Revista Poder voted her one of the "20 young leaders of Chile".
Estela has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Católica de Chile and an MPA (Candidate) at Universidad del Desarrollo.
