RIL Ambassadors | 2019

Cipriano Pérez del Cerro is Argentinean, born in 1968 in the city of Chascomús, Province of Buenos Aires; he is married and has 3 children. He graduated as a lawyer from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), a profession he has practiced since 1992. After the social, economic and political crisis of 2001, he founded a Municipal Group called "Unidad por Chascomús" (Unity for Chascomús) in March of 2003. That year he was elected councilman, being the only councilman of the neighborhood party, in a council composed by 7 radicals and 6 justicialists.

In 2006 he was selected along with 49 other councilmen from all over the country for the Municipal Leaders Program carried out by the CIPPEC and Friedrich Naumann foundations. In 2007 he was candidate for mayor coming second behind the Unión Civica Radical (UCR). In 2015 his party, "Unidad por Chascomús", triumphed in the general elections in alliance with Frente Renovador with 36.5% of the votes.

During the period 2015/19 he holds the position of Secretary of Government. In 2019 he was chosen by RIL and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for the RIL Ambassadors program. In that same year the Agrupación Vecinal integrating the Frente de Todos, triumphed in the general elections with 65% of the votes. Currently he continues in the position of Secretary of Government of the Municipality of Chascomús.

Constanza Renzone has a degree in International Relations, and is a thesis student of the Master in Politics and Local Management at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM). She is currently working for the Government of the Province of Tierra del Fuego as Undersecretary of International Affairs.

She served as Director of Local Development in the Municipality of Rio Grande (2018-2019) and as Director of Strategic Productive Planning in the Province of Tierra del Fuego (2013-2018). In addition, she is a Research Professor at the National University of Tierra del Fuego (2013 to present). She is a former JICA Fellow and was a finalist in the 2019 Local Innovators Competition organized by the Local Innovation Network.

She highlights the role of collective constructions and participatory instances; she ponders the capacity of the State to transform realities, stresses the need for public servants committed to contribute to improve life in the territories, and promotes teamwork.

He began his career in politics in 2010, in the administration of the Mayor at that time, Joaquín de la Torre. With a marked social vocation, warmth and great facility for public relations, he has excelled in the management of communication, work in favor of community identity and citizen participation.

He was campaign manager in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections, in which he contributed innovative ideas and new strategies that were undoubtedly important to achieve victory at the polls.

He is also the creator of the Eyes on Alert Program, which has meant a huge advance in terms of citizen participation in Security, which has transcended the limits of San Miguel, and has been implemented by several municipalities in the province.

He came to public activity almost without looking for it, after working more than 20 years in the private world and considering a change in his lifestyle.

A fan of technology and taking over as director of modernization in the municipality of Cipolletti, he quickly understood that the possibilities to generate and develop projects in the public administration are immense, and that in most cases it only takes the decision to get things done to reach and help a large number of neighbors.

Seeing the positive impact that can be generated in the community by working in public management, activated in him the vocation of service and being able to seek the common good in activities for his city, making him passionate about making things happen.

He is currently getting started in the management of infrastructure and technology projects in the province of Neuquén where he can combine his "geek" passion and his new vocation of service to generate solutions in an area that is constantly growing.

He remarks that beyond the obstacles of the state itself, being able to be part of solutions and see them implemented is very accomplishing and it encourages him to take on new challenges.

University Systems Analyst (UTN), ISO 9001 & 14001 Auditor.

After 15 years of experience in the private sector as a Technology and Quality Management consultant, he started working in the public sector in April 2016 assuming the Deputy Directorate of Revenue of the Municipality of San Pedro, with the premise of shortening the gap between the municipal administration and the technological evolution that occurred in provincial and national tax agencies in the last 20 years. The transformation was total from the reengineering of processes in search of an efficient and transparent local government. Since 2017 he assumed as Director of State Modernization in the same municipality, where through the standardization of processes, innovation, and implementation of Electronic Document Management systems, he managed to expand the methodological work philosophy, the unification of administrative circuits and a strong orientation towards citizen satisfaction.

Currently pursuing a Diploma in Business Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics at UTN, he seeks to add more management control tools to the office, but mainly feed his passion for data measurement, indicators and support for decision making.

Hugo “Cuqui” Calvano, is a young man born and raised in the city of Corrientes. He is 32 years old, is a lawyer and university professor and has carried out different training activities in public policies, local development and results-based management.

He considers himself part of the young people who are "children of 2001"; tired of so much corruption, at the age of 19 he took his first steps hand in hand with the Coalición Cívica party under the humanist guidance of Elisa Carrió, willing to work on a cultural change from politics.

As a defender of the Republic and its values, he dreams and works everyday for the transformation of his city and province, so that all the Corrientes citizens can have equal opportunities and live a decent life. His drive, dedication and constant search for the development of innovative ideas, led him from the beginning to present and implement projects of transparency, modernization and sustainable development. Thanks to that, from a very young age he gained the trust of the neighbors and was elected twice as councilman (terms 2013-2017 and 2017-2021).

He currently serves as Secretary of Government Coordination of the Municipality of Corrientes where he continues to apply his knowledge and vocation for public service.

Juan Pablo is an architect who worked for 4 years in Urban Planning for the Municipality of Pilar, where he coordinated and directed the Environmental Urban Development Plan and the new Land Use Code.

In Pilar he worked from a regulatory point of view, so that the municipality can grow in an orderly manner, enhancing urban centres, protecting the consolidated neighborhoods and the banks of the Luján River, creating a backbone network. He implemented the Land Bank, Capital Gains and the Urban Environmental Advisory Council. In those years, green spaces were doubled, the first riverside promenade of Pilar was created and the Forestation Guide with native species was created.

Previously he worked in various architectural firms and between 2009 and 2016 he worked in his own architecture studio where he focused on residential architecture, construction, real estate developments and urban projects such as the Costanera Norte and Sur in the City of Buenos Aires.

He currently works in his studio doing architecture and real estate developments, collaborating with cities in strategic plans, urban projects and implementation of urban planning instruments.

He is Secretary of Development and Social Innovation of the Municipality of Pergamino. Until 2019 he served as Secretary of Planning and Management Control.

He was the one who, during 2016 to 2019, put in value a model programme of local Modernisation; being the first municipality in the country to use Electronic Document Management and other developments such as the Spatial Data Infrastructure, the State Beneficiary Data Management System (UNICO) and the SIMPLE Metered Parking System.

He is now in charge of developing the zero inequality programme with a strong focus on achieving digital inclusion programmes. He has also developed a distinct vision on social development in the community, working on innovation issues to achieve common neighborhood goals and raising awareness in the city at large about the importance of inclusive economic development.

He served as Undersecretary of Modernization of the City of Lujan de Cuyo during the period 2015-2019, being his first experience in the public sector.

He has a degree in Business Administration, Master of Science in Strategic Human Resources Management. He always held positions that required innovation and development of new proposals that generate added value both to the organization and, especially, to the user, customer or, as in this case, the neighbor.

In addition to formal studies he has specialized in innovation models such as Design Thinking, Theory U and Agile Methodologies, teaching in a business school on issues of business transformation and innovation in teams. His virtue is to be continuously on the move and creating at all times situations that take people out of their comfort zone, with creativity and innovation, always thinking of the neighbor as the center. None of this would ever be possible without a team that accompanies this process and with whom he had the pleasure of working in his 4 years of management.

51 years old. Architect and Urban Planner, graduated from the University of Mendoza. He has been in private practice since 1996, having worked in housing, corporate buildings, distribution and logistics centers, educational and commercial buildings. He has also worked in laboratories, sports facilities and master plan studies of various disciplines. Since 2015 he has been working in the public service in the team of Mayor Dr. Rodolfo Suarez, focused on strategic planning and the design and execution of inclusive public works. In his Secretariat, participatory workshops were executed highlighting the one carried out with the IBD and the local academy, together with the Harvard Urban Laboratory, the Ministry of Interior, other municipalities and the provincial government; in the same order, the workshop on Urbanism under the Gender Look that was developed during 2018 was carried out, also with Harvard University. He's also worked in urbanizations in historically relegated sectors in which informal settlements have been established. In March 2018, the IDB Mayors' forum was held in one of these urbanized neighborhoods -Flores and Olivares- attended by 80 Mayors from different countries to visit the new work, which Suarez hosted.

Born in the city of Junín, he has held the position of Secretary of Coordination since 2017. Previously, in 2016, he had developed as Secretary of Government of the Municipality of the City of Junín.

From that space the first challenge was to achieve cultural consolidation within the management in innovative policies that were nonexistent in that municipality. Already from the Coordination Secretariat, he generated the areas for the planning of each secretariat, providing mechanisms and spaces for monitoring and coordination for the scope and achievements of the objectives. Today, with this work methodology, Martín intends to deepen and professionalize what has been achieved, developing a specific coordination team to optimize the coexistence between day-to-day management and long-term goals. By implementing new methodologies and spaces for the execution of the management platform, he seeks to put into practice what has been planned in each secretariat, as well as the creation of data and statistics to improve the tools for decision making.

With humility and tenacity, and being open to permanent learning, convinced of the path initiated to improve from within the management in his city, Martin pursues that this way of working transcends the names.

He is a university professor and entrepreneur. Secretary of Modernization of the Province of Salta since 2019, he leads a team of 18 officials and 100 public agents. He was part of the Cabinet of the Mayor and current Governor, Gustavo Saenz.

He was chosen by JCI International among the 10 outstanding young people in Argentina and then, among young people from 5,000 cities, as one of the 20 most outstanding in the world. He has made achievements in efficiency and innovation. For this management work Salta was recognized with Miraflores (Peru), Paraguay and Medellin (Colombia) as one of the 4 "smart cities" by the Inter-American Telecommunications Association.

He has 15 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, having advised 60 national and international institutions and companies. He has a Master's Degree in Communications Management. He teaches at the Catholic University of Salta and was a professor at the University of Belgrano, the University of Salvador, Austral and the University of Entrepreneurship and Social Science (UCES) where he was a researcher and for 7 years academic career coordinator. He has lectured in different provinces. He was also a member of non-governmental organizations such as Norte Sustentable ("Sustainable North"), Enseñá por Argentina ("Teach for Argentina"), among others. He was part of a team that advises the Argentine Episcopal Conference.

Facundo Ezequiel Iriarte is a graduate in Cinematography and Television, with a postgraduate degree in Media Arts. Since 2003 he has worked for many TV enterprises and channels specifying in artistic design, motion graphics and communication in the provinces of Córdoba and Jujuy.
In 2015, he assumed the post of Subsecretary of Communication and Open Government in the city of Palpalá, one of the most important cities in the province of Jujuy, with the purpose of generating a change within the political transparency and civic participation policies in the local government. Then, between the years 2017 and 2019, he took the position of Secretary of Modernization, Communication and Open Government in the same city. During these years he carried out training programs for public innovation in different national entities.
He made it to the finals in the Local Innovators Program of 2018, organized by the RIL (Red de Innovación Local) Local Innovation Network, and in 2019 he was elected as RIL Amnbassador, along with other 14 public servants in the country. Currently he's working on the Coordination of Project Planning and Management in the Secretary of Regional Integration and International Relations of the province of Jujuy.
He considers it an important task to grant citizens a more participatory role in the transformation of the cities, and also that is essential to generate spaces of dialogue in which to generate innovating public policies.