MARIANA TORRES MONTOYA
322 W 57th St. Apt. 37A New York, NY 10019 • (917) 755-1706 •
[email protected]
EDUCATION University of California, Berkeley
08/2011- 05/2013
Master of City and Regional Planning (MCP), Transport and Energy Concentration • Research Position: Researcher, Transportation Finance for Urban Sim Transportation Planning Software • Research Position: Student lead, California Energy Commission Smart Grid Assessment Project, i4Energy UC Berkeley • Entrepreneur Project: Policy and operations specialist for shared ride transportation Start-up Company. • Co-designed “Smart Cities” interdisciplinary course, added to Department of City and Regional Planning curriculum
Boston University, Boston, MA
01/2006
Magna cum Laude B.A. Independent Concentration in Political Economy and Urban Studies with Emphasis on China • Senior Thesis: New Towns and New Towns-in-Town: Brasilia, Chandigarh, and the Chinese Experience (Nominated for Best Undergraduate Thesis, Class of 2006)
International Honors Program: Cities in the 21st Century
01-05/2005
Urban development studies in Bangalore, India; Auckland, New Zealand; and Beijing, China • Co-designed Eco-City Redevelopment Plan for Waitakere’s Central Business District (CBD), New Zealand
EXPERIENCE Louis Berger, New York, NY
07/2013-Present
Principal Economist, Financial and Economic Analysis Team Louis Berger is an international consulting firm providing services for infrastructure development. • Deputy Project Manager for Asset Valuation Studies (revenue, Opex/Capex assessment): experienced in development of project goals, performance measures indicators, modeling assumptions, and stated preference surveys. Oversaw technical efforts; structured financial analysis. Managed daily client interaction, project budget, sub-consultant contracts, and team deliverables. Drafted final documents; presented findings to clients, bidders, rating agencies, and lenders. • Structured real estate-private rail initiative pitch: developed and ridership and revenue forecast; conducted real estate valuation; performed cost-benefit analysis for public sector stakeholder; conducted financial evaluation; produced investor pitch presentations. • Led due diligence technical and financial advisory services on transportation projects applying for USDOT loans. • Supported development of case studies on innovative finance for water infrastructure projects. • Managed, made technical contributions to, and won project proposals on infrastructure financial valuation; traffic/ridership and revenue studies, P3 finance structures; transit network strategies, and economic benefits analyses. • Led business development activities in the US and Latin America with banking and investment fund sectors.
Endeavor Global, Santiago, Chile
05-07/ 2012
Consultant, eMBA Fellows Program Endeavor Global is a global network that supports high-growth entrepreneurship in emerging markets • Developed market entry strategy for the public transport industry for leading Chilean firm, Grupo Alto • Defined business opportunity; designed and presented value proposition and pricing strategy, developed financial plan • Socialized strategy elements with Alto’s Board of Directors, government agencies, academia, and potential clients • Initial efforts resulted in contractual agreement with the city’s largest private operator, with excellent results.
World Economic Forum (WEF), USA., New York, NY
03/2009-06/2011
Project Manager, Sustainable Mobility Industries Team Experience in: Brazil, China, Colombia, Dubai, France, India, Switzerland, and USA The WEF offers a platform for leaders from government, academia, civil society, and its 1000 member companies to engage in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Transportation and Related Industry Recommendations: • Catalyzed discussions on and co-wrote “Sustainable Transport as a Public Good,” a shared vision on the future of transport. Report served as conversation starter at the Michelin Challenge Bibendum Brazil, 2010, and the WEF Doha Summit 2010, with over 1,200 leaders from academia, government, business, and NGOs • Structured a joint agenda with Heads of Sustainability from Logistics and Transport companies (DHL, FedEx, Maersk, TNT, UPS) focused on 1) Streamlining carbon reporting procedures, 2) Setting carbon targets for the maritime industry. Approved by CEOs at the 2011 WEF Annual Meeting in Davos • Managed a consulting team in the Repowering Transport Project, a 20-year vision to diversify transport energy sources developed in concert with policy experts and 25 companies from the automotive, aviation, chemicals, investor, and energy industries. Outputs were certified by CEOs at 2011 Davos Annual Meeting:
o Led project execution: developed project vision and objectives; oversaw progress; presented outputs o Guided Project Board discussions with CEOs/COOs from Embraer, Evonik, GE, and Renault • Authored sustainability sections of the Colombia Tourism Competitiveness White Paper 2010. Structured and led meetings with industry and government to address report findings and coordinate action to pursue latent opportunities. • Designed and led Transport in Motion, a cross-industry project that identified customer-focused business opportunities across the energy, transport, and ICT sectors Business development, partnerships, and increasing team visibility: • Developed tailored value propositions for Forum membership to top executives from Latin American Airlines GOL, LATAM, and Avianca to support Forum aviation strategy. • Jointly rebuilt the WEF Urban Initiative, now a successful part of the WEF’s portfolio • Secured external partnerships, improved internal communication to increase urban transport content at events
World Bank East Asia and Pacific Transport Sector, Washington DC
11/2006-11/2008
Junior Professional Associate: Experience in: China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and USA Supported preparation and implementation of transport infrastructure projects in East Asia, adopting lead roles and responsibilities in subtasks of projects and capacity building activities. Independently managed procurement processes from beginning to end, and conducted fieldwork to monitor construction progress and compliance with resettlement activities and environmental management plans, in addition to the following: Project Initiatives: • As a team member, made substantive technical contributions to urban transport projects in China (Jinan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Wuhan, etc.) - established project development objectives and outcome indicators, assessed cities’ project proposals and project risks, and designed and participated in technical assistance activities including fare policy analysis, public-private funding of urban rail, public transport reform, and public participation. • Managed a consulting contract and directed a project designed to identify carbon-credit transport projects in Asia and executed with $70k discretionary budget awarded for innovative idea • Co-developed and co-presented training course on Public Transport Service and Operations Planning in India, Colombia, and Washington DC: interviewed urban transport entities; conducted site visits of public transport facilities in India and Colombia; and wrote course assessment reports • Independently won and managed a $10K grant used to develop a youth workshop on public transport and traffic safety data analysis in Beijing, China. Held as best practice by transport team • Administered and jointly substantiated a large dataset on urban transport indicators for 16 Chinese cities; published document on urban travel characteristics and urban transport energy use in China • Spearheaded data collection effort for comprehensive energy audit of Jinan’s vehicle fleet and identify opportunities for energy efficiency optimizations. • Contributed articles to the East Asia Transport website; assisted in writing and editing of various World Bank publications including China “An Overview of China’s Transport Sector” and “Urban Transport for Development: Towards an Operationally-Oriented Strategy” Project Management: • Supported streamlining and modification of project progress reporting template to projects of different nature across the China transport portfolio through client consultation; applied in over 7 projects • Successfully designed and incorporated an environmental management framework enforcing contractor compliance with environmental regulations into a $1.8 billion expressway project in China
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
(2014) “The Impact of Parking Pricing and Transit Fares on Mode Choice to a Major University Campus” (Press) (2014) “Tackling Fare Evasion in Transantiago: An Integrated Approach.” 91th Annual Meeting (Presentation) (2008) “Improving Environmental Management on Civil Works Projects” 86th Annual Meeting (Presentation) (2008) “Innovative Public-Private Sector Cooperation in Urban Transport in India”. (Press) (2013) “Urban Transport and CO2 Emissions: Some Evidence from Chinese Cities”. Wiley Interdisciplinary Review (Press, co-author) (2011) “Logistics Competitiveness: China, Colombia, and India”. II Jornadas Internacionales de Puertos, Colombia. (Presentation)
ADDITIONAL
Training: Project Management; Financial Analysis; Procurement; Impact Evaluation of Infrastructure Projects Languages: Bilingual Spanish – English, conversant in French and Mandarin, comprehension of written Portuguese. Computers: PC and Mac: MS Office; R; Biogeme; ArcGIS; Adobe Lightroom Hobbies: triathlons; skiing; squash; photography; travel writing
