During his career, which spans over 30 years, Mr. Zapata has provided advise and exercised key management positions in different commercial, industrial, financial and real estate companies in Costa Rica and other countries.

Currently, Mr. Rodrigo Zapata is an international business consultant providing high-level services in real estate development, management consulting and business, financial and corporate strategy to private corporations and governments in various countries. Recent clients include the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, The Higher Corporation for Special Economic Zones of Abu Dhabi; the Swaziland Investment Promotion Agency; the National Free Zone Commission of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan microfinance company Findesa.

In addition to his consulting practice, Mr. Zapata has agreements with GE Commercial Finance (www.ge.com.mx), Finex Trade Group (www.finextrade.com) and American Express Bank (www.americanexpress.com/privatebank) to originate financing and banking opportunities in the region and is currently a member of the Investment Committee of Improsa SAFI, which manages the most profitable REIT in Costa Rica (www.improbank.com). Rodrigo was a founding member of the real estate development council of Costa Rica (www.codicr.com), and is a professor of Innovation and Strategic Marketing in the MBA program of the Universidad Internacional de las Américas (www.uia.ac.cr).

From mid-2001 until the end of 2003, Mr. Zapata was General Manager of Grupo Inmobiliario Zeta, a leading developer of industrial parks, free zones, office buildings, commercial retail buildings and housing projects with over $ 50 million in assets and a track record of over 25 years in the region (www.grupozeta.net).

Previous to this, Mr. Zapata worked for 4 years as Business Development Manager of General Electric for the Central American region. He was responsible for coordinating business promotion in the region for all GE divisions, including Medical Systems, Power Systems, Industrial Systems and GE Capital. While in GE, Mr. Zapata approved the Six Sigma Green Belt course and completed the Manager Development Course (MDC) at the GE campus in Crotonville, NY.

From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Zapata was responsible for setting-up a fully integrated Visa credit card and related financial operations in Costa Rica for Aval Card and the Pacific Financial Group, a prominent financial company in the region.  While in this position, Mr. Zapata negotiated with United Airlines to issue the first co-branded airline credit card in the Region (www.avalcard.com).

Mr. Zapata also worked for several years as Investment Promotion Manager for the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Office (CINDE), www.cinde.org. He attracted a record number of companies to set up offshore manufacturing operations in Costa Rica. He was also in charge of setting up and coordinating a network of promotion offices in the USA, Europe and the Far East. In the early 90´s, Mr. Zapata was the CEO of Metro Free Zone (www.metrofz.com), from the initial “greenfield” status of development until it was a fully consolidated industrial park, considered the best free zone in Costa Rica at the time.

Mr. Zapata has worked for several years as a Business Consultant, first as partner in the firm VBT & Associates, specializing mainly in crisis management, strategic evaluation and planning as well as financial restructuring of various companies and later as Senior Associate Consultant with Washington, DC-based RTI International (www.rti.org), Carana Corporation (www.carana.com) and BearingPoint (www.bearingpoint.com) in the field of investment promotion and free zone development and with Miami-based CEO Advisors (www.ceoadvisors.us) in strategic planning projects in the region.

For 4 years, he was Finance Manager and later Sales Manager of MATRA, the Caterpillar and Mack Trucks dealer in Costa Rica (www.matra.co.cr). From 1972 to 1975, Mr. Zapata worked at the International Department of The First National Bank of Chicago first in the Bank´s headquarters in Chicago, Illinois and later in their Costa Rican branch in San José.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Zapata worked as plant manager of a pre-stressed concrete products company in Guatemala and later of a food products manufacturer in Costa Rica in which he was part owner. In these occasions, he was in charge of design and installation of new production lines, equipment modernization, establishing quality control systems, managing human resources, optimizing inventories and balancing production lines.

Mr. Zapata has served in many Boards of Directors of prominent banks, corporations and non-profit organizations in Costa Rica, such as Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Atlas Electrica and CINDE. At Banco BICSA (www.bicsa.com) he served as Chairman of the Board and was instrumental in setting up the Miami subsidiary of the bank.

Born in Costa Rica, married and with 5 children, Mr. Zapata obtained his MBA at the Central American Business Administration Institute (INCAE), and his BS in Civil Engineering at Louisiana State University.  Mr. Zapata is fluent in Spanish and English and has lived in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the United States and has traveled extensively in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

August , 2006