Founders & Contributors
AZLera’s day to day activities are run by a team of diverse individuals who share in AZLera’s core beliefs in leadership development and education | |||
Throughout the years, AZLera has been motivated, sponsored and aided by numerous individuals that have donated their time and effort. We cannot list them all here, but we thank them always. |
Wilbert (Founder) was born in Chiapas, Mexico. He has always had a profound interest in entrepreneurship grounded in social commitment. Having been raised in Chiapas and in Mexico City, and travelled in Asia and Latin America, he has had a deep exposure to the current problems afflicting developing countries and is particularly interested in the effects of development on indigenous culture and the environment. His professional experience includes working in Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch after having graduated in Economics and Mathematics from UCLA. In 2001 and 2002 he travelled in East Africa sourcing projects for AZLera, writing, filming and photographing fauna and indigenous cultures.
Email: wilbert@azlera.com
Beatrix
is French and currently working as an architect in Shanghai. She has always been
interested in building a more thorough and deep view of the world by learning
from different people, environments and cultures while living and working in various
countries. She was part of the AZLera team in Africa, which developed "Project
Ocean", a computing programming course for children in Mozambique. Presently,
she is primarily involved in the follow-up of "Project Ocean" via Internet,
the updating of AZLera's online magazine "Nomad Voice", and is responsible
for different graphic design tasks.
Email: beatrix@azlera.com
Socorro is a Mexican citizen and lives currently in Chiapas. Socorro currently coordinates all of AZLera's activities in Mexico including the essay competition and the new media project AZLera will launch in the fall of 2003. She has always had an interest in investing back in her community. However, given her commitment to her family it has been until only the last few years that she has been dedicating significant time to social entrepreneurial projects through AZLera.
Email: socorro@azlera.com
Solaria was born in Mexico City and her interest is in raising consciousness on indigenous cultures. "The discrimination that exists in Mexico towards its indigenous population goes unacknowledged. The first step towards improving relations with the indigenous communities is to recognize their existence as well as their incredible cultures. Getting to know these cultures can be both illuminating and heartbreaking as many lack access to basic elements such as an education and healthcare. " This year she is working on the Essay Competition as she believes it is a way to find leaders within Chiapas' indigenous youth as well as to raise cultural awareness on these cultures.
Solaria
graduated from Brown University with majors in Economics and Political Science.
Her professional experience includes working as an analyst at JPMorgan and BNP
Paribas. She will be attending Harvard Business School in the fall of 2003.
Email: solaria@azlera.com
Oliver was born in Mexico. He is in charge of AZLera's upcoming textile project in the heights of Chiapas involving new designers and traditional textile weavers. Oliver studied at UDLA-P, Brown University and graduated from UMASS-Amherst with a degree in Business and a concentration in Finance. He is currently in his second year of professional life working at EMC, an IT company based in Massachusetts.
Email: oliver@azlera.com
Rachana is interested in international development, an interest which has both resulted from and inspired her work during her extended periods living in countries such as Brazil and South Africa. Within AZLera, she will be responsible for managing Project Ocean, the computing programming project in Mozambique,remotely.
Rachana graduated with a BA in Economics from Wellesely College. She was formerly an investment banking analyst with DLJ / Credit Suisse First Boston. She is currently working as a research analyst in CSFB in Atlanta.
Email: rachana@azlera.com
Laurie was one of the original members of AZLera and helped organize the first essay contest in Chiapas. She continues to support AZLera's various projects, albeit on a more limited basis. She lives in New York and has recently finished her Masters degree at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
Email: laurie@azlera.com