Gisela Lokpez and Donna J. Kelley, Babson College

Gisela Lokpez and Donna J. Kelley, Babson College

Listen to the Talk 2 Brazil interview by Tom Reaoch with Gisela Lokpez and Donna Kelley Monday March 31, 2014

Gisela Lokpez is Director Business Development at Babson Executive Education, a strategist and entrepreneur, she is  founder of Techinvest International, a boutique-consulting firm focused originally on the Latin American energy, financial & techno-industrial sectors since the early 90’s growing later internationally, in the It and Wealth Management areas. 

Donna J. Kelley, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College, and holds the Frederic C. Hamilton Chair of Free Enterprise.  She teaches courses at Babson in entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in Asia. She has made speeches for executives and taught at top universities in China and Korea, and worked in Indonesia as a Fulbright Specialist.

 Gisela Lokpez  began her career at Petroleos de Venezuela in the finance area, where she managed the company Trust, Pension, and Savings funds, budgeting and later as one of the key team members instrumental in the design and implementation of the internationalization and privatization of the Venezuelan National Petroleum, Petrochemical and Gas Industry. 

For nine years Ms. Lokpez served as Corporate Vice-president and Head of Trust Division of Banco Provincial’s (Credit Lyonnais-later BBVA/), and later Vice-president of Union Bank in Venezuela. She has served as National Coordinator for the Venezuelan Public Financial Sector. A Financial advisor, consultant and a negotiator for international corporations as well as for governments in the areas of Strategic Alliances, Planning, Energy, Finance in the US 

First woman elected member of the National Economic Council, Gisela has been Vice-President, Treasurer and Director of the National Council of chambers of commerce “Consecomercio”, Director and Treasurer of Petroleum National Chamber, in Venezuela, and International participant of the Energy Council the US  

A believer of the social responsibility between the private and public sectors and has participated in numerous social projects; member of Soroptimist International,  served as Director and Treasurer for the Girl Scouts, Boy Scout Associations and the Boy Scout’s Foundation.  Gisela is member and mentor of the International Solidarity for Human Rights (USA), volunteer of the Florida Junior Achievements program (USA). 

Gisela is an Economist, holds an MBA from Babson College in Finance and Entrepreneurship; she is also an International Negotiator from Harvard University. Speak English, Spanish and some Portuguese. 

Donna J. Kelley  has conducted research on innovation in startups and established corporations in the U.S. and Korea, and on entrepreneurship education in China. Her research has been published in the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, Journal of Product Innovation Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Human Resource Management, and others.

Prof. Kelley is a board member of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA), the oversight board of the GEM project and leader of the GEM U.S. team. She co-authored ten GEM reports: the 2008 GEM Korea Report, the 2008 GEM Education and Training Report, the 2010, 2011, 2012 GEM Global Executive Reports, the 2010 and 2012 GEM Global Women’s Reports, the 2012 Sub-Saharan Africa report and the 2011 and 2012 GEM U.S. Reports.

Donna received her Ph.D. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her early career involved work as a chemist in the graphics and industrial and consumer cleaning products industries. Her entrepreneurship experience includes businesses in the health/fitness, computer hardware and education fields.

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SreyRam Kuy, MD, Co-author of Soul of a Tiger

SreyRam Kuy, MD, Co-author of Soul of a Tiger

Listen to the Talk 2 Brazil interview by Tom Reaoch , Monday March 24, 2014.

Soul of a Tiger is the true story of her mom's life and her family's survival during the Killing Fields and escape from the Cambodian Genocide to the US.  The book begins  in the U.S. and is primarily seen through the eyes of the main character, Rachana (whose nickname is Cha-Cha). 

SreyRam Kuy, MD was born in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields.  She and her family escaped Cambodia when she was a small child and spent several years in refugee camps before being sponsored to the United States by a Christian Missionary group.  She grew up in Oregon, graduated as Valedictorian from Crescent Valley High School, and attended Oregon State University where she earned dual degrees in Philosophy and Microbiology.  She attended medical school at Oregon Health Science University, then finished general surgery residency in Wisconsin.  She also earned her master’s degree at Yale University School of Medicine in health services research. 

Dr. Kuy’s passions are health policy, physician leadership and the underserved.  She believes it is vitally important as physicians to advocate for our patients, and participate in the process of health care policy to strengthen our voice in healthcare policy development so we can better care for our patients.  Because of this belief in the importance of physician leadership, Dr. Kuy has been involved in her local, professional and national community.  As a Kaiser Family Foundation Barbara Jordan Scholar, she worked in the Washington DC office of Senator Tom Harkin, writing speeches and policy briefs on women’s health, coverage for breast cancer screening and treatment, Reauthorization of the Older American’s Act, health care instrument safety, and coverage of experimental studies.

During medical school she served as president of her medical school class and organized a symposium on covering the uninsured featuring physician advocate and former governor Dr. Kitzhaber.  Throughout residency she remained involved in her professional community.  She was appointed by the American Medical Association to serve as a board member on the National Board of Medical Examiners, served as Chair of the Wisconsin Medical Society Resident Fellow Governing Council and served on the Executive Committee of the AMA Surgical Caucus.  She also published an editorial in the Los Angeles Times and the American College of Surgeons’ Bulletin on the need for physician advocacy.  As a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University Dr. Kuy completed a prestigious health policy and health services research fellowship, leading several outcomes research projects while earning her master’s degree.  She has published her research on health care disparities, surgical outcomes, and surgical quality measures in JAMA Surgery, Journal of Vascular Surgery, Annals of Vascular Surgery, American Journal of Surgery and other publications.  “Soul of a Tiger” is Dr. Kuy’s first book.  Her second book, “Fifty Studies Every Surgeon Should Know” is coming out in 2015.

Dr. Kuy’s work is guided by a deep gratitude for the experiences and opportunities she’s been blessed with, which have enabled her to make a meaningful contribution to her patients and her profession.  

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Adam Gonnerman, Senior Technical Product Manager, Uberlandia, Brazil

Adam Gonnerman, Senior Technical Product Manager, Uberlandia, Brazil

Adam Gonnerman , Digital Project Manager from Missouri, by way of New York now in Uberlandia in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Listen to the Talk 2 Brazil interview by Tom Reaoch with Adam Gonnerman onMarch 10, 2014. 

We´ll talk about Adam´s challenges in relocating to Brazil as well as tips to others in a similar transition.

Adam has enjoyed a diverse professional life, having gone from English teacher in Uberlândia, Brazil to a short stint at a law office in Jersey City, New Jersey and then on to AT&T in the same state as an enterprise account manager. From there he stepped into a “multi-hat” web producer role at a startup company in New York before finding his way into project management at Condé Nast. While with Condé Nast he was the project manager for Wired.com, the first that brand had in this role since its acquisition from Lycos in 2006. In the year prior to his most recent move to Brazil he was a Senior Technical Product Manager for Scholastic, guiding online projects from conception to realization.

 This varied background is something he sees as strength, as each new role and experience builds on the last and contributes to his personal and professional growth. 

Adam is a strong believer in the value of technology in improving human life, through solving problems and bringing people together in common purpose. Though there are many examples of this, the use of social media to organize protests in Brazil and elsewhere in recent years is one, and free, online educational opportunities is another. Just 20 years ago the ease of communication and access to information we now enjoy was only just barely on the horizon. 

Having relocated in late 2013 with his family back to Uberlândia, Brazil, the birthplace of his wife and children, Adam is currently teaching English and exploring the local tech scene. Although someplace like São Paulo would seem like a more probable candidate than Uberlândia for this type of work, Adam sees possibilities for his adoptive home city becoming a digital hub for the Triângulo Mineiro region. 

He has his Bachelor’s in Theology from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas and also holds the PMP, CSM and ITIL-f certifications. He and his wife Christiane currently make their home in Uberlândia, Brazil. He blogs regularly at www.adamgonnerman.com   and is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awgonnerman