The Friends of the Center Program offers its members a variety of benefits, including:

Access to Seminars

Regular annual off-the-record seminars held in Cambridge enable members to explore new ideas in a comfortable and open environment. Seminars are tailored to the interests of their participants, and are designed to address economic, political, and social trends in Latin America. The seminar program enables members a chance to interact in an informal setting with a group of leading experts from academia and industry.

Recent seminar topics have included:

* Rethinking Entrepreneurship: New Models for Growth in Latin America (Fall 2002)
* Joining the Revolution: Biotechnology as Business in Latin America (Spring 2003)
* Doing Business in Cuba: Today and Tomorrow (Fall 2003)
* Free Trade (Spring 2004)
* Multiplying Migrants and Their Money: Turning Flows of People and Cash into Economic Prosperity (Fall 2005)
* The 2006 Elections in Latin America: Outcomes and Impact (Spring 2006)
* Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America: Trends and Challenges (Fall 2006)
* Checking Latin America’s Vital Signs (Fall 2007)

Featured Speakers

The Center regularly invites high-profile leaders and public intellectuals from Latin America to speak at various events. In addition to distinguished Harvard faculty members, past guests have included:

Aida Alvarez, Former Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration
Francisco Gil Diaz, Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Mexico
Francisco Gros, Former President, Petrobras, Brazil
Jose Fernando Montoya, President & CEO, Hocol Americas
John O'Leary, Former U.S. Ambassador to Chile
Jose Luis Romero-Hicks, General Director, Bancomex, Mexico
Linda Rottenberg, Co-Founder and CEO, Endeavor Group
Christopher Sabatini, Senior Director of Policy, Council of the Americas/Americas Society Susan Segal, President, Council of the Americas/Americas Society
Alison Taunton-Rigby, Director, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council
Andrés Velasco, Minister of Finance, Chile

Access to Center Conferences and Special Events

Members are invited to attend the Center’s many conferences and events on a wide range of topics throughout the course of the year. Previous Center conferences have included:

* Civil Society and US-Cuban Relations
* Bush Administration Policy Toward Latin America
* Democratic Governance in Mexico
* On the Brink: What Letters to President Kennedy and Presidential Recordings Tells About America During the Cuban Missile Crisis
* Understanding Philanthropy in the Latin American Context
* Latin America's Disappointing Growth: Shifting Paradigms
* Fidel, Che, and the 21st Century

Members also receive special admittance to events held for visiting Latin American public figures including heads of state, cabinet officials, CEO’s of major multinational corporations, and world-renowned professors. Among the visitors to Harvard in the last academic year were former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Governor of Brazil's Central Bank Arminio Fraga, former Mexican Minister of Finance Pedro Aspe and Mexico's chief NAFTA negotiator Jaime Serra Puche.

Business Networking

Participants in the program gain access to the Center’s network of peer organizations. Members have also used the Center as their point of contact at Harvard to set up VIP tours and interviews, and to make contact with faculty members and education programs at the University.

Recruiting Support

Friends of the Center receive personalized recruiting support from Center staff, frequently finding interns or employees among Harvard’s student body.

Corporate Recognition

Members are featured prominently in the Center’s Annual Report, which is distributed widely throughout the United States and Latin America to Harvard alumni, government officials, and private foundations. It offers Corporate Partners prime exposure.

Members are also acknowledged on the Center’s website, which provides links to the sites of all the member companies.