CDI – Center for Digital Inclusion

Management Team

Rodrigo Baggio – Founder and Executive Director

Rodrigo Baggio, 40 years old, is one of the world´s most recognized and respected social entrepreneurs.  Pioneer of digital inclusion in Latin America, in 1995 he founded CDI, (Center for Digital Inclusion) the first non-profit organization to fight the digital divide in the region.  Baggio is a fellow of all four global renowned organizations to support social entrepreneurship: Avina, Ashoka, the Schwab Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation. In 2003, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by DePaul University in Chicago.

Baggio is recognized nationally and internationally for his pioneering projects and vision.  The World Economic Forum recognized Baggio as one the “100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow” and Time named him as one of the leaders of Latin America that will make a difference in the third millennium, selecting him for their “Local Heroes” campaign.  In 2006 he was selected by CNN, Time and Fortune as one of the “Principal Voices” in economic development alongside Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus.

Baggio has received a Certificate of Recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative and was recently invited to join the Strategy Council of the UN’s new Global Alliance for ICT and Development.  He and CDI have won more than 60 national and international awards from prominent organizations including Unicef, Unesco, the Technology Museum, Time, Fortune, the International Economic Forum, and the Abrinq Foundation in Brazil.

His pursuit of social change began at 12 years of age, driven by his two interests: volunteer work with children living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, and computers, which became his choice of profession.  Self taught, he started a technology consulting firm in 1990 and taught computer classes in Brazilian schools.  He also worked as a specialist in Artificial Intelligence (Accenture), and as a manager of the Reinventing Education program (IBM Brasil).

Feeling unfulfilled and stressed by the distractions of his career, at 26 Baggio followed his interest in technology back to the communities-in-need with whom he had worked as a child.  His idea was to achieve greater social inclusion by achieving more digital inclusion.  He founded “Informática para Todos,” Brazil’s first campaign for donated computers and shortly thereafter, in 1995, opened the first Information Technology and Citizens Rights School (ITCRS) in Dona Marta, a favela in Rio De Janeiro. He subsequently founded CDI to aid in the administration and funding of the school.  In the 14 years since, Baggio has helped to improve CDI’s effectiveness and expand its reach to over 750 CDI Community Centers in Latin America.

Mario Vieira – Director of Finance & Administration

Mario Vieira is a civil engineer with a post-graduate degree in Business Administration. Prior to joining CDI in 2004, he dedicated more than 20 years of his professional life to large construction projects, specializing in work related to the third sector, while building upon his management expertise with courses and conferences in and outside of Brazil.

Florencia Estrade – Director,  CDI Consulting and Global Strategy

Florencia Estrade joined CDI in 2008, leading the effort to renovate CDI´s model, she´s responsible to develop CDI consulting initiatives on digital inclusion and BoP, a new social business model, and to expand the impact and sustainability of CDI Community Centers.  She has 10 years of business consulting and banking experience, most recently for McKinsey & Company, where she served as Engagement Manager. Florencia was part of a special group of consultants at the Social Sector Office, working closely with Ashoka and in Base of the Pyramid studies in Bangladesh, Mexico, India and Brazil. Prior to her work at McKinsey, Florencia was a consultant for ECG, boutique consulting for economic development based in California and corporate relationship manager at ABN AMRO Bank Uruguay. Florencia holds an MBA from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley and a graduate degree in marketing from Universidad Católica del Uruguay. She is a Haas Merit Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar.

MAURÍCIO DAVILA – Global Director for Institutional and International Development

Mauricio is both a seasoned social entrepreneur and international executive with more than a decade of leadership experience in both the private and social sector.  Prior to joining CDI in 2007 as executive director for CDI Europe, Mauricio co-founded an NGO, Discovering Latin America, aimed at promoting Latin American culture in Western Europe and raising funds for development projects in the region.  He also worked for 10 years in marketing and advertisement at P&G where he managed brands such Pampers and Fairy / Ariel in Latin America and Western Europe.  As Global Director, Mauricio´s focus is to grow CDI´s organization across the world, attract both private / public investment and develop new delivery platforms such as smart phones.  Mauricio Davila was born in Mexico where he completed his BS in Industrial Engineering at the Universidad Panamericana. He also holds a masters degree in Globalization and Latin American Development from the University of London.

Cinthya Game - Director, Operations

Cinthya was the singular citizen-representative to Ecuador’s constitutional assembly and was her city’s quality of education representative to the Ministry of Education.  Her passion for enhancing the capacity of citizens to realize their dreams using social and educational research was also formally recognized by her selection as an AVINA leader and through her membership in the ROTARY Club. Her written publications can be found in the principal journal in Ecuador, as well as her book, entitled Huellitas.  She holds a Master’s degree in New Technologies from Universidad Alicante de Madrid and a PhD in Social-Educative Research.  She has worked as a consultant to UNICEF and Fundación Ecuador, one of the largest NGOs in the country, and was also responsible for developing the rural educational model for CCA (Centros Comunitários de Aprendizaje) as part of the program Niño Esperanza (Youth Hope).  Since 2006, Cynthia has been with CDI, first as a volunteer and then as the Director of Operations of CDI Ecuador. Together with CDI’s network, she oversaw the development of the CDI Community model, and is now responsible for its implementation as Director of Operations at CDI’s Headquarters in Brazil.

Romi Azevedo – Director, Marketing & Communications

A seasoned international marketing executive with 15 years of experience in launching and managing entertainment brands worldwide in television, cinema and internet, Romi joined CDI this year to lead the organization’s brand and communications strategy.  Prior to CDI, Romi was Chief Marketing Officer at MovieMobz where she launched the world’s first cinema on demand business and consumer brand. Previously, she served as Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications at IMAX Corporation for 4 years where she oversaw the corporate image and managed the brand across the entire IMAX theatre network throughout 38 countries.  Prior to that, she was head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at StarMedia Network where she led a global team and successfully developed integrated marketing communications programs for StarMedia’s portfolio of 13 brands across 11 operations throughout Latin America.  Romi also served as Manager of Marketing and Promotions for USA Brasil, a joint venture between USA Network and Globosat, where she was responsible to launch the American cable television channel in1996 in Portuguese.  Romi holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California in both International Relations and French.

RAMI AL-KARMI – CEO, CDI Arabic Region

Rami is an Electrical Engineer with over 12 years of experience in executive management, strategic consulting, and project management. He completed a number of Senior Executive Programs and post-graduate degrees in Management, Information Technology and Business Administration. After serving as an Advisor reporting to H.E. the Minister of Health, Country Manager, and Managing Director, and Chief Technology Officer of prominent technology-based service and investment institutions, he currently  serves  as the non-executive chairman of @Your Service Group, a company he co-founded back in 2004 and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Elia Nuqul Foundation.  Rami is also the CEO of SHABAKAT; a not-for-profit limited liability company incorporated in Jordan in 2005 to institutionalize the NetCorps Jordan program launched by HMK Abdullah II in 2002, aiming to achieve positive change in the lives of 10 million Arabic beneficiaries by the year 2015. By centering its strategies on local youth, who are enabled with technical, professional and facilitation skills, SHABAKAT´s programs empower people to incubate initiatives that respond to their community needs through the integration of information and communication technologies in their day-to-day lives.

Board of Directors

Márcio Fainziliber – president

Private Investor: Former Partner of Banco Pactual, one of Brazil’s leading independent investment banks (acquired by UBS in 2006)

Paulo Ferraz – vice-president

President & CEO of Bozano, one of Brazil’s largest private companies

André Esteves – treasurer

Global Head of Fixed Income, UBS; Former Partner of Banco Pactual

Ronald Munk – administrative Director

Managing Partner – Resources Industry Latin America, Accenture

Mário Fleck – technical director

Executive-Director of Rio Bravo, a Brazilian investment firm which  manages $2 billion in assets; Former President of Accenture Brazil

Luiz Chrysóstomo – director

Senior Director of Brazilian hedge fund NEO Investments; Former Managing Director of JPMorgan Brazil

Marcos Antônio Magalhães – director

President of the Board of Philips Latin America

Mário Esses – director

Advisor/Consultant for Tecnologia S/A and Disec Security Systems. Former Director of Brazilian telecom giant Brasil Telecom

Antônio Napole – director

Vice-President of consulting firm Kaiser Associates Latin America

Antônio C.G. Costa – educational adviser

Renowned educator who worked closely with Brazilian educator Paulo Freire; Formerly at organizations like the UN, Unicef and ILO

Márcio Schiavo – communications adviser

CEO of Comunicarte, Brazilian firm specialized in social responsibility