Over 25 years of software development and engineering management experience.

As Chief Executive Officer at Avantica, Mario leads the company's strategy and direction. His constant pursuit of innovation has led Avantica to become an award winning company in this field; as he was honored for Innovation in the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2009 by a major Costa Rican newspaper,  for leading the company to the development of groundbreaking applications using cutting edge technologies.

Before founding Avantica, Mario was Chief Technology Officer at Babcock & Brown, a leading investment banking firm, where he led a worldwide team and was responsible for all technology strategies and implementations. Before Babcock & Brown,  Mario was Director of Product Development for Intuit, where he led the development of new products for the Quicken product line and managed the development of Intuit's International Products. Prior to that, at Software Publishing Corporation, Mario created Harvard Graphics, which redefined the presentation graphics software category and was largely responsible for the company's growth from $20M to over $100M in revenues. Mario earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.

Luis Carlos Chaves oversees Avantica's daily operations and ensures their alignment with the company's strategic development plans. His vision and eye for detail have seen Avantica through impressive organic growth rates of 30-40% annually since the company's launch in 1993.

Prior to co-founding Avantica Technologies, Luis Carlos was the CTO/CIO of Banco Cuscatlán, a leading commercial bank in Costa Rica, where he was responsible for all software development, IT operations and technology strategy for over 12 years. Luis Carlos has over 20 years of experience in software development and systems architecture. He has also accumulated a wealth of expertise in secure financial systems, network architecture, database design, client server applications and web development.

David Muñoz has played a key role in Avantica's regional expansion strategy by successfully opening its Peruvian Operations in a matter of months. He is also responsible for the company's marketing, sales and new product development.

David has over 20 years experience in sales and project development in the technology area. Prior to joining Avantica Technologies, David worked for Unisys Corporation, a technology and consulting company, where he was responsible for the marketing and sales strategies of Unisys Peru as General Manager and as Vice President of Global Financial Services in the Andean Region. David has a degree in Computing Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de Centro America.

John Hitchcock is focused on expanding Avantica’s Nearshore software engineering services brand across North America, while developing and executing demand generation programs supporting the company’s sales.  He also is responsible for U.S. West Region sales, and individually delivered 11 new clients in 2012 in domains including Retail, Logistics, Financial, Healthcare and Recruiting.

John has over 20 years of experience in the software and services industry.  Prior to joining Avantica, John held marketing, sales operations and channel management leadership positions with innovative startups backed by the venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, NEA, Greylock, Norwest and Austin Ventures.  Earlier, he was an award-winning sales rep. with the software divisions at GE and British Telecom.  John has managed teams in China, India, Ukraine, U.K. and the U.S.; and received his Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University.

Henry Marchena plans and coordinates Avantica's major service areas to ensure that the client receives the highest quality products and services by supervising Avantica´s development centers in Costa Rica and Perú. Henry has played a major role in codifying Avantica's development processes, which now surpass industry standards. His team has also ensured the adaptation and assimilation of new technologies and methodologies within Avantica, maintaining its leading edge in outsourced product development.

Henry has over 20 years experience in systems development and database architecture, concentrating on Internet applications over the last few years. In addition, Henry has expertise in financial applications. At Avantica Technologies, Henry has played a key role in Internet projects developed by the company. Prior to joining the company, Henry was the IT director of a regional bank in Costa Rica, and earned a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Costa Rica. 

Over 9 years of experience in human resource functions. Prior to joining Avantica Tatiana was the HHRR Manager for a leading Costa Rican software company. In that position Tatiana was responsible for all aspects ranging from training and development, recruiting and selection, motivation, performance evaluations, compensation, organizational climate and talent retention among others. Before this Mrs Lizano had regional HHRR responsibilities with Procter and Gamble in Latin America. Tatiana Lizano graduated from Psichology from the UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) and got post graduate studies in competencies management in Argentina in Martha Alles institute and in Universidad de Belgrano (Enterprise Anthropology).

Over 19 years experience in accounting and operations management in the banking and securities sector. Prior to joining Avantica Technologies, Manfred worked for Banco Cuscatlán, a leading commercial bank in Costa Rica, where he was responsible for all operational management of a brokerage and mutual funds firms for over 10 years. Manfred has a degree in Public Accounting from the "Universidad Autónoma de Centro América" and an MBA in Banking and Finance from "Fundepos - Universidad de Costa Rica".

Marcela oversees the financial management and control of the company, the generation of timely and relevant information for decision-making and corporate strategies while ensuring compliance with tax rules and regulations of all Avantica subsidiaries. Mrs. Chaverri has over 14 years experience in accounting and audit in private audit firms and multinational financial corporations such as CitiBank. Marcela holds a Business Administration degree with emphasis in accounting from Universidad de Costa Rica.

Gerardo is a hands-on Software Engineer/Project Manager with solid and successful background in web development for a wide variety of business applications and high-profile clients. During his 8+ years with Avantica, Gerardo has climbed the corporate ladder, playing most of the technical roles in the development area which has given him the insight to now manage the operation in Peru. Gerardo holds a BS degree in Computer Science from the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica.

With over 10 years experience in software development and management of software companies , he and his team starting from scratch have grown a software operation in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica to what today is Avantica San Carlos, helping to boost local talent and promoting other local development initiatives related to high tech.

He has contributed as a consultant with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in projects coordinated with Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and INCAE, where the main goal was to improve international competitiveness of participating SMEs by strengthening business alliances and information technology use.

In 2006 he received the entrepreneurship special mention in the Entrepreneurs of the Year prize and in 2009 the 40 under 40 recognition (Outstanding People) by El Financiero.
He holds a Computer Engineering degree and an MBA in Finance and an MBA in Marketing from ITCR (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica).