Oswaldo Álvarez, MBA, Materials Director, Coyol Site, Boston Scientific Oswaldo Álvarez is an industrial engineer with an MBA, offering more than 35 years of experience in supply chain. Most of his time was in leadership positions, managing multi-disciplined teams in logistics, warehousing, purchasing, production planning, inventory management, and sourcing. During his 17 years at Boston Scientific, Álvarez led the materials organization for Heredia and Coyol sites, managing sourcing, purchasing of direct and indirect materials, production planning, and logistics. He also spent seven years as a global sourcing director, managing Boston Scientific’s worldwide sourcing strategies for the Metals Category (five years) and Plastics, Resins, and Chemicals Category (two years). Before BSCI, Álvarez worked for Chiquita Brands (10 years) as a logistics manager, purchasing manager, and equipment manager. Prior to that, he spent four years at Baxter in logistics and quality. Álvarez was part of the team that founded the Costa Rica Logistics Association and served as president for six years.
	Pedro Beirute Prada, CEO, PROCOMER Pedro Beirute Prada is CEO of Costa Rica Trade Promotion Authority PROCOMER. This government agency is responsible for country exports, trade facilitation, and free trade zones. He also serves as president of Costa Rica Country Brand and as president of the 23 Latin America Trade and Investment Promotion Agencies Council REDIBERO. Since Beirute joined in 2015, PROCOMER has been awarded as the “Best Trade Promotion Organization in the World” by International Trade Centre. Prior to his public service, he worked 15 years for Intel Corp, progressing from finance clerk in Costa Rica to chief of staff of Intel Global Head of Sales, in Silicon Valley. He coordinated sales and marketing operations for 56 countries and 8,000 employees and became the Latin-American with the highest position on Intel global organization chart. Beirute lived in Madrid, London, México, and San Francisco before returning to his native Costa Rica to join the public service where he has focused in public service innovation, inclusion, and sustainability to promote businesses with purpose. During his tenure, Costa Rica has grown exports in average $1B per year. Beirute has Law and Business degrees as well as an MBA in Spain. He has four children and has completed seven Ironman triathlons.
	John Bernardi, Senior Executive Advisor, Latin America Region, Nippon Express John Bernardi has had a successful career with global freight forwarders and all-cargo airlines in Latin America for the past 30 years. Starting with a German multinational freight forwarder in Miami responsible for air and ocean transport connecting Europe and Asia with Latin America. He then joined Southern Air Transport operating all cargo aircraft to all major traffic points in Latin America. He subsequently joined Atlas Air (all cargo airline) and was instrumental in establishing Atlas Air as one of the top three all-cargo USA flag airlines operating to/from Latin America. After assignment with IATA (International Air Transport Association) global headquarters in Montreal, Mr. Bernardi joined DHL Global Forwarding (Americas Region) and “rejoined” the freight forwarding and global logistics industry. In 2016, he joined Nippon Express USA to overhaul and further develop Nippon Express (worldwide) market presence in Latin America, working with agent partners in key countries, and supporting Nippon Express operations in the Americas with both combination/freighter airlines and ocean carriers. Bernardi is a graduate of University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University with Master’s degrees in International Business Administration and Government/Public Administration.
	Roy Calderon, General Manager and Site Leader, ATL Technology A chemical engineer with an MBA and operations management emphasis, Roy Calderon is a Certified Supply Chain Management Professional and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. His more than 25 years of experience in executive and leadership positions at multinational companies in diverse industries, including medical devices, have resulted in proven results optimizing processes in operations, supply chain, procurement, logistics, and manufacturing across several countries including within the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Calderon is a member of the John Maxwell Team, a Certified Coach, Speaker and Trainer by John Maxwell as well as a Licensed Master Practitioner of Neurolinguistic Programming, with sound understanding and expertise on situational leadership, negotiation models, and operational excellence.
	Rodney Crooks, Vice President Operations—Medical Device Solutions (MDS), Viant Since 2019, Rodney Crooks has been responsible for managing operations of the MDS business at Viant, across multiple sites in Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. He is an experienced global operations executive with over 30 years of manufacturing experience, more than twenty of which are in medical devices, for both OEMs and CMs. He is highly experienced at supporting business growth, operations development, and in delivering sustainable results. Crooks is a hands-on leader, a strategic thinker, and a firm believer in developing and building world-class teams. He advocates for continuous improvement and provides teams with the resources needed to successfully drive consistent year-over-year results. Originally from Northern Ireland, he attended Queen’s University Belfast and The University of Ulster, gaining degrees in Applied Microbiology, Business Administration, Management and Operations, and a graduate degree in Manufacturing Management. His global perspective has been developed through managing and leading teams in the United States, Europe and Mexico.
	Tattiana Cruz, Commercial Manager South Cone Cenam, Grupo Tical Tattiana Cruz is an economist professional with more than 24 years of experience in the logistics sector. She offers knowledge and experience in international trade and transportation (air, ocean, and international trucking), as well as customs operations and regulatory processes within the Central American region. Cruz is a Certified Lean & Six Sigma Process Improvement Advisor.
	Ruben Drávai, Procurement Director, Coloplast Ruben Drávai is an experienced procurement director with a history of working in the medical device industry. He brings strong purchasing professional skills in negotiation, spend analysis, supplier evaluation, global sourcing, and developing procurement organizations internationally. Drávai has been working for Coloplast for almost 16 years, starting in 2007 to build up the Strategic Procurement function. In Hungary, he developed a team and identified local/regional/global suppliers, both direct and indirect, where approximately 80% of the worldwide production takes place. In 2021, he was transferred to Costa Rica to build up the function and establish the basics of procurement. Prior to Coloplast, Drávai was with Sweedwood/Ikea for four years, starting as a buyer and later became the purchasing manager locally and then internationally.
	Vanessa Gibson, Director of Investment Climate, CINDE Vanessa Gibson has worked at CINDE for over 20 years. She started as an economics researcher, and within three years, assumed the position of manager for the Services Sector. Since 2009, Gibson led the Aftercare area and is currently the Investment Climate Director, managing the strategy of competitiveness of Costa Rica for the attraction of foreign direct investment. Gibson is an economist and holds her licentiate degree in Economics from the University of Costa Rica. She also has a Master’s in development Program and Project Evaluation from the University of Costa Rica (graduated 2006). Prior to CINDE, she worked at the Central Bank of Costa Rica as an economic assistant to the Agricultural Economics Department.
	Lucia Gross, Life Sciences Sectoral Consultant Lucia Gross is an independent MD sectoral consultant since 2019, after she retired from CINDE—the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency—where she worked for more than 30 years. During that time, she worked in different areas of the organization supporting the foreign direct investment attraction and exports promotion activities in several agriculture and manufacturing sectors since her start in January 1989. Gross was the manager of the Electronic Sector from 2000 to 2007; afterwards, she undertook the role as manager for the Lifesciences Sector, in charge of the development of its ecosystem, supporting the establishment of global OEMs, CMs, and suppliers into the country. Gross holds an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from the Costa Rican Institute of Technology TEC, MS degree from the University of Costa Rica—CATIE, and a bachelor degree in plant science engineering from the University of Costa Rica.
	Ronald Lachner, Senior Partner, BLP Legal As senior partner of BLP Legal, Ronald Lachner is a recognized expert in the foreign direct investment, Free Trade Zone, and export industry. In his more than 30 years of experience, he has advised a variety of national and international medical device and life science companies in the establishment of their operations in Costa Rica. He currently advises the largest and most renowned investment projects in the country. In his leadership role, he is an active member of the most important chambers and business associations of the industry, currently acting as vice chair of the Costa Rican Free Trade Zone Association (AZOFRAS), and was vice chair of the Costa Rican Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO), from where he has actively collaborated government entities and the Congress to improve the regulatory and business climate for free trade zone companies.
	Todd Mahaney, Director of Global Procurement, MicroVention Inc. Todd Mahaney is an international business executive who is well versed in the design and development of global organizations for companies in the United States, Mexico, Central America, Asia, Europe, and South America. Expert in constructing high performance teams, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, process improvements, reducing cost, ensuring quality, and generating OI and cash flow. Industry experience includes medical, auto, consumer products, aerospace, and electronics. Functional experience includes operations, supply chain, finance, continuous improvement, marketing, branding, sales, strategic planning, quality, HR, IT, and engineering. Mahaney’s current role is director of global procurement for MicroVention. Prior roles include owner of management consulting company, vice president and chief procurement officer for Triumph, and vice president and COO for Hampson Industries.
	Michael Maxon, Senior Associate, Duggan Associates Michael Maxon has worked in Lean and operational excellence for over 25 years. He has worked with several different industries including medtech, aerospace, motorsports, off highway, and private equity clients, conducting training and implementation of operational excellence, including large-scale, diverse projects. Having spent most of his career working for GKN, Maxon understands what it takes to implement and sustain operational excellence in complex customer delivery systems.
	Jim McCormack, Senior Global Commodity Manager, Hologic Jim McCormack is an accomplished global supply chain leader in life sciences with an operations-focused finance background. At Hologic, he has over ten years of experience working extensively within the Costa Rica medical device sector. Areas of expertise include negotiating large complex supply agreements, plastics, and sterilization. During the pandemic, McCormack managed the scale up of key suppliers that were instrumental in Hologic becoming one of the largest suppliers of molecular COVID-19 tests in the world. He has directed diverse global teams including procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier quality, and planning. Prior to Hologic, McCormack was responsible for Manufacturing Finance at a division of Parker Hannifin where he developed deep expertise in lean manufacturing. Jim has an MBA and an undergraduate degree in accounting from Bentley University.
	Dawn N. Norman, MS, Partner, MRC Global LLC As partner, Dawn Norman’s expertise and leadership has helped propel MRC Global’s continued growth as a leading regulatory and compliance consulting firm, highly respected throughout the medical device industry. With an extensive background in the medical device and biologics industry that includes VC-funded startups to Fortune 100 device manufacturers, Norman’s depth of experience allows her to develop custom client solutions, go-to strategies for clinical studies and evaluations, and a risk-based approach related to regulatory and quality systems. Prior to MRC Global, she spent 15 years in the medical device industry working with venture capital backed start-ups and larger companies alike. She focused on regulatory strategy and submissions, along with clinical study design and study execution. Norman was directly involved with early development and market entry for leading edge medical innovation, including magnetic navigation devices for neurosurgical, neurovascular, and cardiac indications; high intensity ultrasound for cardiac ablation; recombinant proteins for bone fusion; orthopedic trauma; infusion pumps; and advanced imaging technologies.
	Bernal Rodríguez, CEO, ITEK Bernal Rodríguez has more than 30 years of experience in management and leadership positions in manufacturing, engineering, production, and operations, working with several multinational companies, both inside and outside Costa Rica. He has an extensive track record in managing complex plant startups, technology process and product transfers, and new product introductions. Rodríguez is the founder and CEO of ITEK, the only Costa Rican manufacturing services company catering to the life sciences ecosystem. Since the start of operations in 2017, ITEK has grown from three employees to more than 125 and it provides nearshoring solutions to nine medical device customers with products ranging from sub-assemblies and components to OEM devices. He has an Electronics Engineering degree from the Institute of Technology of Costa Rica (TEC) and obtained the dual Master’s degree in Global Business from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico) and Global Master of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (United States). He enjoys reading, traveling and, more recently, riding his motorcycle around Costa Rica.
	Barry Schnur, President & CEO, David Schnur Associates Barry Schnur brings 30 years of medical device industry experience and is well versed in the design, development, and manufacturing of medical components and devices. Under his leadership, David Schnur Associates (DSA) has become a leading global provider of outsourced technical sales and marketing services for the medical device industry. Leveraging a network of material and component partners, DSA helps customers to objectively identify materials, technology, and global solutions critical to a successful program. Schnur has over two decades of experience in Costa Rica; an early highlight was attending the opening of the first ArthroCare facility in Heredia. DSA has had an office in Costa Rica for more than 10 years and has played a role in the rapid growth of production, supply chain, and OEMs in Costa Rica.
	James Shore, Chief Quality Officer, Quality Lean Solutions James “Gunny” Shore is the chief quality officer at Quality Lean Solutions. He offers over 30 years of quality and supplier management experience working in medical devices, semiconductors, aerospace, and defense (Titan Medical, Lake Region, Nypro Healthcare, Boston Scientific, Aspect Medical, ACMI, Brooks Automation, and Raytheon). Quality Lean Solutions provides Simple Sustainable Solutions™ to companies in the medical device and high-tech industries by providing value-added auditing services, lean manufacturing, development of quality management systems, assisting with the EU Medical Device Regulation transitions, and performing inspections to the American Association of Tissue Banks standard. Shore’s professional certifications include ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ Certified Quality Manager/Operations Excellence, Certified Quality Auditor, and Certified Mechanical Inspector, as well as ASQ Senior Member. He is a Certified Welding Inspector and Test Supervisor for the American Welding Society. Co-author of the book entitled “Proactive Supplier Quality Management in the Medical Device Industry,” which is published by Quality Press. (100% of the royalties are donated to Veteran service organizations.) Shore served his country in the United States Marine Corps for 15 years as a Helicopter Crew Chief/door Gunner and was Honorably Discharged at the rank of Gunnery Sergeant (E-7).
	Dora Soto Herrera, Supply Chain Sr. Manager, Bayer Medical SRL Dora Soto is an international commerce trade administrator with an Operations and Supply Chain Master’s from Michigan State University. She is a passionate supply chain/logistics professional; driven by people’s talent development. Dora offers 27 years of experience in the medical device industry and three years in pharma for transnational companies. She has demonstrated proven leadership in key positions such as director, manager, and consultant. Her communication skills and negotiation abilities, in multicultural environments, have provided Dora the opportunities to lead and manage different interdisciplinary teams during product transfer, technical transfers, startups, and operations continuous improvement. She is a board member, conferencist at “The World Organization of Cities and Logistics Platforms,” and article writer for Inbound Logistics LATAM. Dora owns a professional certificate in Fair Logistics.
	Tim Steele, CEO, Founder, & Owner, MicroSpec Corp. Tim Steele is the CEO, founder, and owner of MicroSpec Corporation located in Peterborough, N.H., USA. A self-taught extrusion engineer and entrepreneur, he has built a world-wide reputation at MicroSpec for extruding some of the most complex and challenging medical extrusions. His background includes extensive experience in thermoplastic elastomers, including TPUs and nylons, high heat engineering plastics, and fluoropolymers, which is augmented with comprehensive experience in compounding thermoplastics. Steele has extensive experience designing medical extrusion tooling including extrusion heads and cross heads. He owns one patent and is considered a thought leader in the medical extrusion industry where he led the development and miniaturization of co-extruded and multi-lumen tubing, and transformed the neo-natal catheter industry. Prior to founding MicroSpec in 1989, Steele worked in Ireland helping Teleflex Medical establish a new medical extrusion facility in the mid 1980s. He has worked closely with other companies in transferring manufacturing technology to Mexico and is considering the possibility of MicroSpec moving some manufacturing capacity to Costa Rica to tap into the local labor market and to enhance price competitiveness.
	Michael Tucci, CEO, Micro Technologies Michael Tucci is driven by a passion to change the rules of the game. He holds a combined degree from NYU in business and eastern philosophy that fuel his unique approach to modern manufacturing as the CEO of Micro Technologies (mic-tec.com). Micro Tech specializes in delivering mission-critical applications for the medical device (and other critical areas) while helping their OEM clients transition to Costa Rica and upgrade performance in the process. Now almost 25 years old, Micro CR has grown to over 500 team members passionate about advancing the manufacturing. Their latest venture is a Robotics as a Service offering designed to address labor shortages, accelerate re-shoring efforts, and disrupt negative factory footprints. Tucci also co-founded the YPO ImpactX, a first-of-its-kind impact initiative to harness disruptive technologies and create positive impact on a global scale. Originally from New York, Tucci and his family now reside in Costa Rica where he enjoys martial arts, exploring the mind/body connection, and absolutely everything related to the ocean.
	Alexander Unfried, Plant Manager, Terumo Cardiovascular Alexander Unfried is an industrial engineer with a Master in Business from the National University of San Diego. He has 22 years in the medical devices industry, leading companies including Allergan, Freudenberg Medical (contract manufacturer), and Terumo Cardiovascular. Unfried has lead the transfer of more than three thousand SKUs and managed the introduction of new technologies. He also developed an R&D Center of Excellence with a budget of more than $60 million. Unfried was also a teacher at the Universida Autonoma de Centroamerica (UACA) and currently serves as a board member for a Free Zone logistic company. He’s served terms of temporary assignments in Santa Barbara (CA), Ventura (CA), Chandler (AZ), and Cavite (Philipines), and has led four facility start-up and participated in six. Unfried was born and raised in Costa Rica; he also loves to spend time with his family, play golf, travel, and read on business topics.
	Melissa Víquez Herrera, Global Purchasing Manager, Moog Medical Melissa Víquez Herrera is an international trade business administrator, industrial engineer, and project manager, CPIM certified. With more than 15 years of experience in supply chain roles, including logistics, planning, and purchasing, most of her career has been developed in the medical devices industry. She’s a passionate promoter of operational excellence and con-tinuous improvement as pillars to optimize processes and achieve results. Her team works be-yond Costa Rica frontiers, as they support procuring activities for two of Moog Medical Devices manufacturing sites, located in Costa Rica and Salt Lake City, Utah, where the medical division has its HQ. Before joining Moog in 2017, Herrera held other positions at Expeditors, ICU Medi-cal, and Smith+Nephew.
	Richard Warren, Chief Commercial Officer, Medical Manufacturing Technologies Inc. (MMT) Rich Warren is responsible for the global commercial strategy of MMT and its subsidiaries, where he leads strategic sales and marketing initiatives to achieve aggressive and sustainable growth. Key in Warren’s area of responsibility is MMT’s TotalCare forward stocking program which delivers the benchmark in aftermarket service and support. As CCO, he plays an integral role in the development and implementation of integrated supply chain planning focused on driving clarity of demand which facilitates management of supply and resources to ensure support on-time delivery of equipment and aftermarket components. It is the fully integrated sales and operations strategy that supports the rapid growth of MMT. Prior to joining MMT, Warren spent 15 years at the LISI Group of companies in commercial and general management roles, where he delivered strong, meaningful growth in its medical and aerospace business units. In addition to his time at LISI, Warren also held various roles at GKN and has a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
	Carlos Wong, Chair, Azofras Carlos Wong has extensive experience working as General Director in several Free Trade Zones, including the Metropolitan Free Zone, Global Park, and Coyol Free Zone. In the public sector, he has had responsibilities in the Free Trade Zones Corporation and has participated in CINDE—the investment promotion agency of Costa Rica—where he worked in several positions—Investment Program Director and Director for Asia Pacific Region based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Wong has also been a consultant for the World Bank and a Professor and Researcher at the Institute of Economic Sciences of the University of Costa Rica. He has an MBA in Management from the InterAmerican University of Costa Rica, as well as participated in postgraduate programs in International Marketing at Georgetown University. Wong graduated from the School of Economics at the University of Costa Rica. He has participated in the Boards of Directors of private sector organizations such as AZOFRAS, CPC, Cadexco, UCCAEP, and AZFA.