Economics@Work Alumni Speaker Series

SPRING 2020 SEMESTER SCHEDULE

All talks are scheduled for Friday afternoon at 2-3pm in either RLP 1.302B or RLP 1.302E.

SPEAKER BIOS

Carlos Sanchez
Senior Trader, Valero Energy Corporation

Carlos Sanchez lives in San Antonio, was raised in Costa Rica, and is a second-generation UT Economics graduate. Carlos has over 15 years of professional work experience and is currently a Crude Oil Trader at Valero Energy Corporation, where he has worked in Business Development, Analytics, and Trading. Carlos earned his BA degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, a MBA in International Business from UT-San Antonio, and a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business. In addition to commodities trading, Carlos has experience in commercial lending and sales. Carlos played collegiate volleyball for UT, is a father of three, enjoys golf, and loves to travel.

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Julia Coronado
President, MacroPolicy Perspectives

Julia is founder and principal of Macro Policy Perspectives (MPP), an independent US economics research firm based in New York. Julia is an economist with extensive experience in both policy making and financial markets. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Texas and more than a decade of experience as a financial market economist serving as Chief Economist for Graham Capital Management and BNP Paribas, a Senior Economist at Barclays Capital and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C where she regularly briefed the Board, contributed to the FOMC forecasts and represented the Federal Reserve at meetings of the OECD’s Committee on Financial Markets.

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Dilawar Syed
President and CEO, Lumiata

Dilawar Syed is President and CEO at Lumiata, where he leads the company’s growth and transformation as an AI Healthcare Platform company. Lumiata provides predictive insights for managing healthcare costs and risk impacting millions of lives. Dilawar chairs the California Entrepreneurship Task Force for the Governor's office and is driving the charge for inclusive entrepreneurship and economic growth in the state's inland regions. Prior to joining Lumiata, Dilawar was President at Freshworks, where he founded the company's North America business overseeing enterprise sales and marketing, customer success and partnerships. Dilawar has undergraduate degrees from UT in economics and computer science, and he has an MBA from Wharton.

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Dona Cornell
VP for Legal Affairs and General Counsel, University of Houston

Dona Cornell is the University of Houston System vice chancellor for legal affairs and general counsel and the University of Houston vice president for legal affairs and general counsel. In her role, she is responsible for all legal matters of the System and each of its campuses which includes transactional matters, all aspects of compliance and ethics, athletics issues, litigation management and advice and counsel regarding academic and student issues as well as many other legal matters affecting the System. Prior to her appointment, she served as the deputy chief of the General Litigation Division for the Texas Attorney General's office. As deputy chief for litigation, Cornell supervised thirty attorneys with responsibility for the 700-plus cases handled by the division. Previously she was a shareholder in the Austin-based law firm Morehead, Jordan & Carmona. Cornell earned her undergraduate and law degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.

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Enoch Lawrence
Director in Capital Markets, Cushman & Wakefield

Enoch Lawrence is a Director in the Capital Markets Group of Cushman & Wakefield, focusing on Equity, Debt and Structured Finance. Mr. Lawrence has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry including $4 billion in capital advisory work, complex financial modeling and transaction-specific consulting assignments. Prior to his current position, Mr. Lawrence was a Senior Vice President in the Debt & Equity Finance practice for CBRE Capital Markets including coverage of the Investment Properties Institutional Group. Enoch graduated from UT with a bachelor's in economics and received a Master's degree from NYU in real estate finance.

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Jorge Woldenberg
President and CEO, Corpac Group

Jorge Woldenberg is the President and CEO of the Corpac Group, a global holding entity that operates vertically integrated business units in the steel production, distribution, and services markets. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Texas.

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Erica Huerta
Vice President of Product Management, Bungee

Erica Huerta recently joined Bungee as its Vice President of Product Management. Previously, she was Business Intelligence & Analytics Manager for the Amazon Pricing team after three years as the Senior Competitive Intelligence Manager at Whole Foods Market. With a decade of private sector experience in analytics, Erica has worked in a variety of industries in the tech hub of Austin, TX and has finally made her way to Seattle, WA. Her passion in data and continuous learning has led to a successful career in developing business strategy for companies such as Expedia (formally HomeAway/VRBO), Home Depot, Amazon, and now Bungee. Erica recently completed her BA in Economics at the University of Texas at Austin and is excited to no longer get confused as a TA or professor.

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