Richard Hojel, President & CEO Corporacion Frigus Therme & Algas Industries Richard Hojel has been with Corporacion Frigus Therme since 1993 and in 1996 became its President and CEO. Corporacion is a group of companies based in Mexico, including the following business units: a manufacturing process equipment company that services the petroleum and petrochemical industry (Zeeco-Therme), a commercial refrigeration equipment company (Frigus-Bohn) and a business that rents capacity to transport and market natural gas (Igasamex). He is President and CEO of Algas Industries (a US company), a designer and manufacturer of liquid vaporizers and gas mixing solutions. Mr. Hojel began his career at Andersen Consulting and has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Harvard Business School. As a Partner of HM International, Mr. Hojel works closely with and serves on the Board of Directors of Quality Sausage Company and American Innovations. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Algas-SDI, Frigus Bohn de Mexico, and Igasamex.  Additionally, he participates as a Board Member of Corporación Zapata and Monte Xanic.  Mr. Hojel has been a Member of the Board of Directors of The Institute of the Americas since 2003 and is currently serving as its Chairman.

Theodore E. Gildred, Chairman Emeritus Chairman of the Board, The Lomas Santa Fe Group Theodore E. Gildred was appointed United States Ambassador to Argentina in 1986 and served under both the Reagan and Bash Administrations until June of 1989. Mr. Gildred is the founder and Chairman of the Board of The Lomas Santa Fe Group, a San Diego based network of privately held real estate holding and development companies. He serves on the Board of Directors of North American Airlines, and the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Area Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Since completing his State Department assignment, Ambassador Gildred has returned home to San Diego. He and his wife, Heidi, live on the beach in Encinitas, California. Mr. Gildred’s family moved to San Diego in 1914 and established businesses in both the United States and Mexico. Mr. Gildred was born in Mexico City in 1935, and attended schools in Mexico and Southern California. Following military service in Germany, he earned a degree in 1959 from Stanford University and, subsequently, did post-graduate language studies at the Sorbone and the University of Heidelberg. Mr. Gildred worked in Mexico as administrator of family businesses before starting The Lomas Santa Fe Group in the sixties. In 1967, he became president of the Gildred Foundation, which has made substantial contributions to scientific research, education, health care, and community improvement in the United States and Latin America. More frequently, the Gildred Foundation focused on Latin American affairs, establishing chairs for Latin American studies at Stanford University and the University of California San Diego. In 1979, Mr. Gildred formed the Torrey Prines Bank, which became one of the largest independent banks in San Diego before being sold to Wells Fargo Bank in 1990. Mr. Gildred then joined the Board of Directors of Security Pacific National Bank and served until 1993 at which time he became part of the Bank of America Board of Directors through 1994. In the early eighties, Mr. Gildred was instrumental in founding the Institute of the Americas on the campus of the University of Calfiornia, San Diego. He served as chairman of its Board of Governors until he was appointed Ambassador to Argentina and rejoined the Board upon his return in 1989. In 1981, Mr. Gildred piloted a 1942 Stinson Reliant airplane, the “Ecuador II” on a 4600 mile flight from San Diego to Quito, duplicating the historic flight made by his father fifty years earlier, which led to the establishment of the first air mail system in Ecuador in 1931. He was subsequently awarded the honorary Command Pilot wings of the Ecuadorian Air Force by, then President, León Febres Cordero. In 1992, President Carlos Menem of Argentina awarded Ambassador Gildred the Orden de Mayo al Mérito, en Grado de Gran Cruz for the significant contribution he made to broadening and strengthening relations between Argentina and the United States. Ambassador Gildred has been a speaker at many international conferences and YPO and CEO Universities around the world and he continues to travel extensively in his capacity as president of the InterAmericana Group, a consulting firm specializing in the development of business opportunities throughout the Americas.