Judging Profiles Federico Patiño Banobras
Latin America Judging Panel
Federico Patiño was born in Mexico City and studied at the Law School of the National University of Mexico (UNAM). He specialized in development banking at The World Bank Development Banking Institute in Washington DC and worked in Mexico’s development bank Nacional Financiera (Nafinsa) for 28 years from 1980 to 2008. There he occupied different positions as, Deputy General Director of Credit, Deputy General Director of Treasury, Deputy General Director of Development and Deputy General Director, Investment Banking. In May 2007, he was appointed Deputy General Director in Investment Banking and Corporate Financing at Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (BANCOMEXT), having maintained his position in Nafinsa at the same time. He was responsible for the creation of the Corporacion Mexicana de Inversiones de Capital (CMIC); Coordinator of the initial public offering process for the government’s position in the Mexican airport groups; responsible for structuring the finance for the Terminal 2 for Mexico City’s International Airport; and the selling process of the FARAC’s first package of toll roads. In 2008, Mr. Patiño was appointed Investment Banking Director of Banobras, in charge of The Mexican Infrastructure Fund.
Peter Luchetti
Table Rock Capital North America Judging Panel
Peter Luchetti is a founding Partner and leads TRC’s Business & Investment Development Group. His experience includes advisory and capital-raising roles covering a wide range of transactions in the transportation, social infrastructure, water & waste, energy and communications sectors. Prior to forming TRC, Peter was Managing Director and Global Head of Project & Structured Finance for Bank of America. In this role he was responsible for a 140-person team transacting in over 30 countries on the origination and execution of project and structured finance, advisory and capital-raising activities. Prior to assuming leadership of the Project & Structured Finance Group, Peter started and ran Bank of America’s first distressed loan trading desk and also worked for J. Aron Goldman Sachs. He received a BA in economics from Hobart & William Smith Colleges and an MA in economics from Duke University. He also serves as a Board member of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
Q:
What is the greatest infrastructure challenge you think will need to be addressed in the next ten years?
A:
VC: Capturing opportunity and delivering the need of our communities for sustainable and effective energy solutions is the greatest challenge going forward. Furthermore, the associated challenges regionally, either in engaging government on sensible and ambitious programmes (e.g. Hong Kong, China) or establishing an environment in which infrastructure investment and development can be carried out with a degree of confidence (e.g. Thailand, Indonesia), are equally daunting. Ultimately, they are well worth the effort. TB: We need to put infrastructure into perspective as neither governments nor consumers are uniquely focussed on it. Focus is on finding a balance between economic growth, competitiveness, environment and overall sustainability. Looking at this issue from a European standpoint, we are talking in essence about maintaining standards of living and competitiveness. So we do not need to improve competitiveness of infrastructure in an absolute sense but need it to be competitive with other countries for the purposes of international trade. A lack of infrastructure is not the general problem faced by Europe, other than in respect of some Eastern European countries. So looking ahead, efforts are likely to be focussed on finding a balance between smart growth, green growth and overall the regional integration between all of the countries of Europe. Infrastructure is part of a balanced set of initiatives covering all of these areas. Managing its inclusion in the bigger picture is our biggest challenge. EO: There are three major challenges. First of all, Governments
need to realise that infrastructure projects would not be built just because the concession fee is changed or the project model is altered. The world faced up to the carbon challenge but it is just not waking up to the infrastructure challenge. There is an assumption in the developing world and beyond that somehow the problem is going to fix itself by merely getting legislation in place. Secondly, it should be recognised that finance via conventional financial sources, i.e. banks or private investors, is either not going to arrive or it will at a price deemed impossible for low income countries to deal with. Finally, transport infrastructure – which as a sub-sector is underrated as a source of potential employment in the Middle East region – must be addressed with the seriousness it deserves. If this happens, in less than three decades, transport (and logistics) sector could be the largest employer in the region overtaking oil, gas and finance.
RDV: Energy sector diversification, environment and managing natural resources are the biggest challenges from a Latin and Central American standpoint, especially as South America has the biggest rain forest in the world and is growing exponentially led by the Brazilian economy. It is crucial to address these concerns. For instance Brazil’s dependence on hydropower coupled with all the environmental and social problems is a hurdle. So their initiatives and that of other countries in favour of renewable energy are a step in the right direction. Combined cycle gas-fired power plants, and emergent technology should play a part. My expectation is for the number of wind farms to increase and clear moves in this direction are visible in Chile. However, the regional challenges are manifold. In Mexico and Central America, a major concern