Management team
Mario Chaves - CEO and CO-FOUNDER
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 - President and CO-FOUNDER
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.
Luis Carlos has a degree in Computer Science from Universidad de Costa Rica and an MBA from National University.
David Muñoz - Corporate Marketing and Sales Director
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.
Diego May - Business Development Director
Over 15 years of experience in Business Development in the technology and telecom sectors.
Prior to joining Avantica, Diego worked in the Venture Capital Industry doing several transactions in highly scalable ventures. Mr. May created an angel group, was the regional Strategic Investments Manager for Intel Capital and served in the boards of technology companies. Also, Diego worked in sales and Business Development with Lucent Technologies, and Verizon Communications. Mr. May has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (Argentina) and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Business.
HENRY MARCHENA - DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
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.
TATIANA LIZANO - HUMAN DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
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).
MANFRED BOLAÑOS - FINANCE DIRECTOR
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".
BOB BENEDICT - CTO
As the CTO of Avantica, Bob Benedict provides technology leadership across the all aspects of the company. He uses his knowledge, experience and creativity to identify emerging trends in technology, products and user experiences to ultimately help Avantica maintain it's position as a forward looking technology-based organization. Bob also plays a key role architecting and designing innovative solutions for many of Avantica's strategic and important customers.
Bob has been working in technology since graduating from UC Davis as a Computer Science major over 20 years ago. Bob founded Open Mountain in 2007 to provide leadership and experience to companies bringing new products and technologies to market. Bob served as the CEO of Open Mountain from the beginning until it was acquired by Avantica in May 2010. Previously, Bob was the VP of Development for NetBooks, a startup focused on small businesses from the creator of QuickBooks. Bob has worked in senior engineering management at many industry standouts including Adobe, Macromedia and Intuit. Before that, Bob worked at Arbor Software on the original development team that produced the first data warehouse Essbase OLAP Server®. Bob is also a passionate writer, skier and soccer player. He hopes one day to pen the great American science fiction novel.
TOM JOHNSON - SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
As the Senior Vice President of Product Development, Tom will be taking advantage of his extensive product experience and successful track record to ensure the creation and release of high impact products. Tom will be working and collaborating directly with clients locally while leading the development of products delivered by Avantica's nearshore teams.
Tom has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry, most recently as CTO and co-founder of Open Mountain. Prior to that, Tom was a senior director of Ariba, where he led engineering for Ariba’s primary revenue generating product, Ariba Buyer. Previously, Tom held engineering and senior management roles at Arbor Software. Tom had responsibility for all client-side products and APIs for Essbase OLAP Server®, still the leading OLAP server on the market. Before that, he held various engineering roles for Hewlett-Packard. Tom earned an MS in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University and a BS in Computer Science and Math from UC Davis. In his spare time, Tom enjoys participating in triathlons and long-distance running events. Tom is an Ironman™ triathlon finisher and multiple-time Boston marathon qualifier.
GERARDO DELGADO – PERU SUBSIDIARY GENERAL MANAGER
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.