The expert in international strategy, former deputy assistant secretary of Commerce of the United States during the Obama Administration, will be one of the main names at the meeting to be held from October 26 to 28
Also participating are Marc Canal, researcher at the McKinsey Global Institute; Paul E. Kent, international reference in the port field; Natalia Bayona, executive director of UN Tourism; and María Camila Moreno, trade policy analyst at the OECD
The event will bring together in the Cadiz capital those responsible for free zones, international organizations, universities, ports, institutions and companies from both sides of the Atlantic
The international strategy expert Juan Verde heads the line-up of speakers at the XXIX Conference of Ibero-American Free Zones, which will bring together in Cádiz from October 26 to 28, prominent experts and officials from free zones, international organizations, universities, ports, institutions and companies from both sides of the Atlantic. Under the motto "The ocean that unites us. The conversations that will mark the future", the event returns to the capital of Cadiz more than two decades after the city hosted this meeting in 2002 and will once again reinforce its role as a space for connection between both shores of the Atlantic.
Verde has extensive experience in the fields of international trade, investment and sustainable economy. He was deputy assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia of the United States Department of Commerce during the Barack Obama Administration and was part of the President's Export Council during the Joe Biden Presidency, an advisory body to the White House on foreign trade and competitiveness. He currently chairs the Advanced Leadership Foundation and carries out his activity as an international advisor.
In addition to Verde, another keynote lecture will be given by Marc Canal, senior researcher at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's economic and business research area. & Company. Canal works on research related to global progress, productivity and economic growth and their relationship with factors such as demographics, human capital, innovation and technology. In Cádiz he will offer an inspirational intervention under the title “Arenas of the future in a world of possibilities.”
Another of the featured profiles will be Paul E. Kent, an expert in ports, transportation and logistics with an extensive professional career linked to port planning, strategy and development. His presence will bring to the meeting the experience of a specialist who has worked for decades in the international port field.
The Conference will also feature Colombian Natalia Bayona, executive director of UN Tourism and one of the leading international profiles in the connection between tourism, innovation, education and investment. His professional career has been especially linked to the promotion of entrepreneurship, training and the transformation of the tourism sector.
Added to these names is María Camila Moreno, trade policy analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and responsible for the implementation of the organization's certification scheme for free zones. Moreno also knows the Ibero-American sector in depth, since before joining the OECD she was executive director of the Association of Free Trade Zones of the Americas (AZFA) for ten years.
The program also incorporates the Uruguayan ambassador Guillermo Valles, a career diplomat and expert in international trade, who has been Uruguay's ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), vice chancellor of his country and director of the Division of International Trade in Goods and Services and Raw Materials of UNCTAD.
The special delegate of the State in the Free Zone of Cádiz, Fran González, has highlighted "the opportunity of bringing together top-level experts in Cádiz with very diverse experiences to discuss the present and future of the free zones." González has stressed that "we want the Conference to be, in addition to a space to share knowledge and experiences, a meeting point from which new alliances and lines of collaboration emerge that allow us to continue working together on both sides of the Atlantic."
The address of AZFA, in Cádiz
The conference will host the assembly of members of the AZFA, co-organizer of the Conference together with the Cádiz Free Zone and the entity that connects the free zones of Ibero-America.
The meeting will be attended by its current president, Claudia Pellerano, president of the Las Américas Industrial Free Zone, of the Dominican Republic, and with a professional career of more than 25 years linked to the industrial and free zone sector.
Next to her will be Carlos Wong, first vice president of AZFA and general director of Code Development Group, from Costa Rica. The representation of the association's management will be completed by Juan Opertti, second vice president of AZFA and representative of the Chamber of Free Trade Zones of Uruguay, and Julio Rodríguez, executive director of AZFA.
The voice of young Ibero-American entrepreneurs
Business representation will have one of its main exponents in Matías Fernández Ilarde, president of the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs (FIJE), an organization that brings together associations of young entrepreneurs in Ibero-America and represents more than 80,000 companies from 22 countries. FIJE works to promote entrepreneurship, cooperation and the participation of new generations of entrepreneurs in the economic development of the region.
The president of FIJE will participate in the table dedicated to free zones as platforms for the internationalization of SMEs, in which he will share a conversation with Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Barcelona Free Zone Consortium, and Andrea Serrano, manager of the Santander Free Zone.
The business field will also feature Narciso Casado, permanent secretary of the Council of Ibero-American Businessmen (CEIB), and Javier Collado, general director of the INCYDE Foundation, among other representatives of organizations linked to the Ibero-American business community.
Outstanding representation of CAF
The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) will also have a prominent presence at the Conference and will reinforce the participation of multilateral organizations and the Ibero-American dimension of the meeting.
Alicia Montalvo, vice president of Cooperation, Alliances and Mobilization of CAF, will participate. Economist and member of the Higher Corps of Commercial Technicians and State Economists, he has an extensive career in financing for development, climate action, trade and international cooperation. Before assuming his current responsibility, he was manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity at CAF and previously developed a good part of his career in the Spanish Administration and in multilateral organizations.
Next to her will be Lina Mondragón, manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity at CAF, with extensive professional experience in strategy, sustainability and development. Before assuming her current responsibility, she was an executive advisor to the Executive Presidency of CAF and has held different responsibilities in the public and private sectors of Colombia.
Institutional and academic representatives
Representatives from other Spanish free zones will also attend, such as David Regades, special delegate in Vigo; Carmen Tovar, delegate from Seville; and Gabriel Corujo, delegate of Gran Canaria; in addition to Gustavo González de Vega, Deputy Minister of Economy and Internationalization of the Government of the Canary Islands.
The University will also have a presence at the meeting with Casimiro Mantell, rector of the University of Cádiz; Pablo Vera Salazar, rector of the University of Magdalena; and representatives of Purdue University, providing the program with an academic and knowledge transfer perspective.
The program also incorporates Piotr Stryszowski, senior economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), adding the presence of another of the main international organizations to the Conference lineup.
The XXIX Conference of Ibero-American Free Zones will thus turn Cádiz into a meeting point for leaders and specialists from different economic, business, academic and institutional fields in Europe and Latin America for three days. This event arrives in the Cadiz capital after having passed through Punta del Este (Uruguay, 2025), Curaçao (2024), Barcelona (2023) and Punta Cana (Dominican Republic, 2022).
The Conference in Cádiz will be linked to the celebration of the Blue Zone Forum InnovAzul 2026, which will begin on October 28 and will last until the 30th. Both meetings will make up an intense week of international projection for the city and will bring together institutional and business representatives, experts, researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals to connect the field of free zones with innovation, entrepreneurship and the Blue Economy.
All the programming and all the details of the XXIX Ibero-American Free Trade Zone Conference can be consulted on the website: https://www.azfacadiz.es/.