Mexico

Based in Mexico City, María Luisa Chavez is responsible for Beneficial Returns’ work in Latin America as the LatAm Manager. Prior to Joining Beneficial Returns, María Luisa co-founded El Buen Socio, providing financial education and loans to rural entrepreneurs with positive social and environmental impact throughout Mexico.

María Luisa received her BA in Economic and Social Administration at Université Paris 1 – La Sorbonne, and, a few years later, a Master’s degree in Creation and Management of Innovative Companies at Universidad de Barcelona along with a postgraduate in NGO Management at ESADE. María Luisa previously worked at Numa México (formerly Venture Institute), an incubator for high-impact entrepreneurs, and ALLVP (formerly Venture Partners), the first institutional seed venture capital fund in Mexico. She sits on the advisory board for Reforestamos México, a 20+ year old non-profit organization focused on regenerating and preserving forests through care and entrepreneurship.

María Luisa is passionate about doing finance differently and putting people at the center of decision making. She also loves dogs, coffee, and travelling with her husband and three-year-old daughter, Inés. She loves hiking and reading, always with a good piece of bakery bread.

Juan Pablo de Tavira was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico and was taught to always be in touch with the reality of inequalities in his country. Juan Pablo studied architecture at the Iberoamericana University and West Hill University, and began getting involved in political activism in his later university years. Juan Pablo participated in several student labor movements and collectives that helped him understand the conditions of working class struggles and the search for economic and social justice. His graduating thesis was based on a notable housing cooperative in Mexico, the Palo Alto Cooperative. He worked with members of this remarkable project to design a new stage of housing buildings to expand the cooperative to more families, using social production and urban agriculture methods that involve the community in all aspects of design and construction. These experiences got Juan Pablo involved in the cooperative movement and the study of social economy principles. Currently, Juan Pablo is finishing his master’s degree thesis on social economy and working on urban agriculture projects involving local neighborhood kids. He co-founded a Martial Arts social business and plans to expand this project to vulnerable and violent neighborhoods to help kids stay out of crime through practicing Jiu Jitsu. Juan Pablo sees himself as a facilitator of starting cooperative and social businesses, and his goal is to connect concerned and interested investors with viable and promising social businesses, which he believes will alleviate social and economic problems. Juan Pablo is also a strong defender of animal rights, a dedicated vegan and activist; he believes justice and empathy should be expanded to all sentient beings.

Matilde Olazábal is currently CEO of FFHAlcance, a Grameen Foundation-Freedom from Hunger sister organization, and works to promote initiatives that have an impact on improving the quality of life of people living in poverty. Contributing to strengthening human and community development capacities with training and education proposals for community-based institutions’ staff in charge of addressing poverty issues. Matilde has also been negotiating strategic partnerships between FFHAlcance and other international and national development organizations in addition to supporting innovation, the improvement of comprehensive financial services for microfinance institutions, the development of training of trainers and the development of educational products on relevant topics for people living in poverty. A focus of her work has been the design, development, and advance of complementary developmental services to the provision of financial services for the microfinance sector. Directed her team’s participation in due diligence activities for private equity investment in microfinance institutions, focusing on the assessment of rural financial products and complementary services for the poor. Recently she directed the organization’s Latin America Team in the development and operation of an E-Learning Platform to offer Development Sector Front Line Staff training programs to enhance their Key Competencies. Matilde is a member of various Civil Society Organizations’ Boards recognized for its commitment to improving social problems. She holds a Master’s degree in Education from Anahuac University, a Specialization in Social Development and Social Policy from CIDE, a Senior Management Program in Private Equity from IPADE and a Bachelor of Science in Education from Anahuac University.