Martin Burt
Executive Director
burt@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Mr. Burt is the founder and current CEO of Fundacion Paraguaya. He has led an active in promoting civil society in Paraguay and has also had experience in local and national government. He has a degree in Public Administration and Inter American Studies at the University of the Pacific, in California and a Master’s degree in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Burt started the Fundacion Paraguaya in 1985 and the country’s first microfinance program. He was also instrumental in starting the country’s first environmental protection foundation. From 1991 to 1993, he served as Vice Minister of Commerce. He was elected Mayor of the capital city of Paraguay, Asuncion, in 1996, and served a five year term.
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship distinguished him as a 2004 Outstanding Social Entrepreneur at the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. He has also recently received the 2005 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2004 the Inter- American Development Bank gave him the Award for Excellence in Social Responsibility. He has also received the “Orbis Guaraniticus Award” from the UNESCO for the promotion of culture, the “Domingo Sarmiento Award” from the National History Academy of Argentina, the U.S. Eisenhower Fellowship Award, the Republic of China Eisenhower Fellowship Award, the Best Social Project Award by the Christians’ Business Association, and the Outstanding Young Person of the Year Award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Asuncion. Mr. Burt is married and has three children.
Luis Fernando Sanabria
General Manager
lfsanabria@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Luis Fernando Sanabria was born in Asuncion in 1965. Married, with four children, he received his Law Degree from the Catholic University of Asuncion and has a Masters in Business Administration from the IAE of the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also has a diploma in Micro Business Administration from the Golda Meir Institute of Haifa, Israel and has been trained in finance and credit methodology in numerous workshops, seminars and work-study programs in Latin America.
Luis Fernando Sanabria has been working in the Micro Finance Program since 1987. He has also done consulting work for the Inter American Development Bank, Avina Foundation, and the United Nations Development Program, among others. He has been the counterpart of Acción Internacional in the application of the CAMEL instrument in Fundación Paraguaya on numerous occasions and has been an evaluator for Acción Internacional in the application of CAMEL at another local entity.
Under the auspices of AVINA and representing Fundación Paraguaya he developed the Organizational Development System to evaluate development entities and is the founder and first President of the Association of Civil Society Organizations of Paraguay.
In the public sector he led the Municipality of Asuncion’s Tax Reorganization Program from 1997 and 2001 which enabled doubling the annual income of the city. He also headed the Office of Internal Administration of the city, managing an annual budget of 60 million US dollars. Additionally, he represented the city at numerous local and international entities.
Luis Fernando feels particularly proud of the expansion achieved by the institution’s Micro Finance Program over the last three years. He is responsible for ensuring the operational integration of the Fundación Paraguaya’s three programs.
Roberto Giménez
Director, Microfinance Program
rgimenez@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Roberto Gimenez Meza, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1971, opted for Paraguayan citizenship. He is married and has three children. He graduated from the National University of Asunción with a degree in Agronomy, studied Accounting at the same university up to the senior year and additionally got his Masters in Business Administration through the Catholic University of Asunción under the INCAE degree program.
Mr. Gimenez has taken several courses and workshops on management and leadership, marketing, commercial strategies, market expansion, and training in risk analysis for the different sectors of the economy.
He began his career at the Fundación in 1994 and in his 15 years of working with the institution has exercised several positions, such as, Credit Officer, Supervisor, Office Manager, and Regional Manager. From 2007 until the middle of 2008 he was the Business Manager. Since then he heads the Microfinance Program.
Roberto Urbieta Junior Achievement Program Manager
urbieta@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Roberto Urbieta did his elementary and high school years in Asunción and in Pennsylvania, USA. He graduated from the Catholic University of Asuncion in Accounting and Administrative Sciences. His post graduate work in Latin America, the US and in Japan emphasized Management.
Businessman, and President of several companies in Paraguay, he is also the founder and promoter, as well as active board member, of several civil society organizations.
Roberto joined the Fundación Paraguaya de Cooperación y Desarrollo as a member in 1986. He was elected by the Assembly as a Member of the Board in 1988 and as such was appointed in 1999 as Managing Director, a position he has exercised to date by successive reelections in Assemblies.
Additionally, since August 2005 he has been working as the Director of the Junior Achievement Program.
He is married and has three children.
Luis Fernando Cateura
Director, Self-Sufficient Schools Program
lfcateura@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Luis Fernando Cateura was born in Asunción in 1965. He got his degree in Business Administration from the Autonomous University of Asunción. He also has a teaching degree for the high school level. Luis Fernando has done courses on strategic planning and marketing for businesses and participated on the team that developed the Organizational Development Evaluation System (ODES), and the validation evaluations. Additionally, he carried out training workshops for the technicians and evaluators on the application of the ODES instrument.
Mr. Cateura has done consulting for the development of the “Best Practices for Small Farmer Credit Management Methodological Manual” and carried out training workshops on credit management for rural producers.
In the business sector, he held management positions in the hotel business. In the public sector, he worked in the finance and tax area of the Municipality of Asunción.
At the Fundación, the results of his term as manager of the Asunción office, one of the main offices of the Microfinance Program, were a success. Among his achievements is the development of the pilot plan and implementation of the Entrepreneuring Women Committees program, which enables training and granting credit to groups of women.
He directed the San Francisco Agriculture School in 2007, the year it achieved self-sufficiency) and in 2008, which saw the first class that included female students.
Luis Fernando participated on the team that developed the Business Plan and Organizational Evaluation for: the San Isidro Labrador School in Pilar, Paraguay; La Bastilla (Jinotega); Fundación FAMA (Chinandega); Opportunity International (Rivas) in Nicaragua, and for the Fundación Servicio Juvenil (Atlántico - Colombia).
Currently he is in charge of the Self-Sufficient Schools Program.
Maria de Lourdes Olmedo Finance Manager
olmedo@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Lourdes graduated from the Catholic University Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Accounting Sciences and Business Administration with an Honorable Mention in both degrees. She finished her graduate degree in Business Administration at the institute for this subject, the IAE, of the Universidad Austral of Buenos Aires, Argentina as an Executive Master in Business Administration in 2003.
María de Lourdes became part of Fundación Paraguayas staff through a personnel selection process searching for an accountant with a specialization in the financial arena. Her previous job experience was at a financial entity regulated by the Central Bank of Paraguay. She is currently the Director of Administration and Finance for Fundación Paraguaya. One of this areas main objectives is the efficient administration of the institutions resources, very specifically analyzing the costs of the different programs to determine the break-even point.
One of her greatest professional achievements was getting an Honorable Mention in the Microfinance Transparency Award granted by the World Banks Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) for the Foundation.
Luis Antonelli Controller
antonelli@fundacionparaguaya.org.py
Luis Antonelli, Director of the Comptroller Office has been working with Fundación Paraguaya for 19 years. He began in the institution as Activities Coordinator in 1986, and then became the Finance Administration Director from 1987 to 1990, Comptroller from 1990 to 1991, Director of Operations (Credit Department) from 1992 to 1993, and since 1994 he heads the Office of the Comptroller.
He began his career at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Paraguay as Communications Assistant in the Department of Communications and Diplomatic Correspondence in 1962, a position he exercised until 1971. He became a Junior Assistant, and later the Senior Accounting Officer in the Accounting Department from 1972 to 1981.
He went on to be the Credit and Technical Assistance Program Administrator working with Vegetable and Fruit Producers of CREDICOOP (Savings and Loan and Production Cooperatives Central) from 1982 to 1985.
He got his degree in Administration and Accounting from the Catholic University of Asunción and since then has participated in numerous seminars and workshops in Management and Communications, Financial Administration, Strategic Marketing, Quality, as well as Micro Enterprise and Solidarity Group Programs. He also went on observer missions to Micro Enterprise Programs in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic; Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz, Bolivia; and Guayaquil, Ecuador as well as observer on the commercialization of vegetable and fruit products in the retailer chain of San José and Cartago, Costa Rica, packaging companies in counties around Miami, as well as supermarkets in Miami and Washington D.C. in the United States.
Luis is currently an active member of the Association of Accounting and Administrative Science Graduates.
