The first embarrassment was when Quintero announced that  the CEO of telephony provider America Movil / Claro, Juan Carlos Archila would be appointed to the board of Ruta-N, Medellín’s primary technology entrepreneurship incubator. Archila clarified that he would not accept such an appointment.

Despite repeated requests by Finance Colombia, Mayor Daniel Quintero, through his press secretary has refused to respond.

Quintero also named Alberto Preciado of Colombian conglomerate Grupo Santo Domingo to the board of EPM, the utility giant owned by the city of Medellín. Preciado took to Twitter to publicly reject the offer. Curiously these public rebukes took place after Quintero announced the appointments, leaving the question of whether he spoke to these individuals beforehand.

Preciado is a lawyer and currently serves on the board of large Colombian companies such as Valorem, Decameron, Caracól Television, Cine Colombia, The Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Cafam, and Bavaria.

The crisis deepens for Quintero, as there is a limited pool of Colombian executives with experience governing a multibillion dollar company with international holdings—and international investors—such as EPM. As EPM relies on international institutional investment, its corporate governance must answer to financial stakeholders beyond the Aburrá Valley of Colombia where Medellín is situated.

One of the board members who resigned, Azucena Restrepo (pictured above), who is the president of Proantioquia, the regions leading civic foundation, criticized the mayor, saying his actions “undermine trust in institutions and people and they become a worrying sign that is detrimental to the good governance that has characterized everything that involves EPM.”

Above Photo: Shullette Cox, Vice President of Corporate Development & Competitiveness, JAMPRO (left), Carlos Gonzalez, Executive Director of ProColombia Caribe (center) and Solangel Ortiz Mejia, Minister Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Colombia (right) share a conversation at the MOU signing between Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) and ProColombia.

This will not be the first time that JAMPRO has facilitated investment from Colombia, as the agency facilitated Grupo Terranum’s Decameron’s hospitality investment in the island country. This aligns with JAMPRO’s strategy of maintaining strong trade ties with North America and Europe, while expanding commerce between Jamaica and Latin America.

“Colombia is one of Jamaica’s long standing trade and investment partners, and JAMPRO recognizes this and sees the need for a serious partnership with ProColombia to build on our countries’ already existing relationship.  The MOU creates a framework that will guide our future collaborations in rapidly developing sectors such as BPO and Health and Wellness Tourism and will also facilitate more cooperation between both agencies,” said Diane Edwards, the President of JAMPRO.

Points of collaboration between JAMPRO and ProColombia:

1. Joint partnerships and opportunities for the Health and Wellness Sector in Jamaica. Using Colombia as a bench mark for development of Health and wellness sector.
2. Tourism- Jamaica to Exchange ideas with Colombia for development of Colombian Tourist industry.
3. Agriculture and Agro-processing – partnership in producing value-added products.
4. Information, Communication and Technology – Jamaica for English language customer service support.
5. Mining – the bauxite and alumina industry, and other areas of mining.

The memorandum will serve to guide collaboration between the two agencies with the goal of increasing bilateral commerce and collaboration. They are now actively seeking opportunities in health and wellness, BPO, hospitality and resort development, and logistics.