The Vallecaucanos of the 21st Century
The department is preparing to have a new generation of leaders who, despite being under forty, already excel in their activities and will be on the public scene for decades to come.
Many of the political leaders of Valle del Cauca are over sixty years old, and several of them are already over seventy. The heads of the most important business groups gave way to a new generation that, however, did not reach the brilliance of its elders and the management of the companies in some cases was entrusted to people outside the traditional families.
The ethical, economic, and political crisis that affected the region for at least twenty years, as well as the preeminence that Antioqueños were given during the eight years of the government of former President Álvaro Uribe, affected the leadership of Cali and Valle of Cauca at the national level.
The situation seems to be changing. There is a group of young people who have taken over the public scene and are already recognized not only locally, but several of them are national and international characters.
The challenge is getting them to maintain a link to the region and not become brain drains lost to the city and the department.
With the support of a group of advisors, EL PUEBLO selected a number of characters under the age of forty who, without a doubt, will be the leaders of the 21st century in Cali and the Valley for the next twenty years.
They are innovative leaders, sensitive to environmental issues, respectful of diversity and minorities, strict in compliance with the law and with a great social commitment. They represent a globalized and open generation. They grew up in the digital age and dominate all communication platforms. They speak several languages and, like the generations before their age, they also dream of a better country.
Ana Fernanda Maiguashca
Before he learned to master numbers, his parents (both economists) taught him poetry and drama; but he was stronger than his passion for mathematical equations.
Her father, Franklin Maiguashca, an Ecuadorian of Inca lineage, is an economist with a doctorate from Oxford, and her mother, Ana Fernanda Olano, also an economist, was a pioneer in holding senior management positions in the country and with a master's degree from Stanford.
That heritage led Ana Fernanda Maiguashca, born in Cali, to study economics at the Universidad de los Andes and do an MBA at Columbia University in New York. In addition, her professionalism led her to serve as Vice Minister of Finance and to replace Fernando Tenjo on the board of directors of Banco de la República.
Until recently, she was the Director of Financial Regulation of the Ministry of Finance, responsible for the judicial defense of the processes that have been opened to the State due to the crisis of the pyramids, such as DMG. As Deputy Risk Delegate of the Financial Superintendency when the global financial crisis of 2008 occurred, Maiguashca was in charge of supervising banks and credit institutions to protect themselves against the crisis since 2007.
She is the youngest member of the Banco de la República Board and the second woman to hold that position. The experience in the Board and her great academic training make her -from now on- one of the most important economists in the country and she will exercise a leadership in this matter that is projected for many years.
Christinne Armitage
This thirty-eight-year-old economist is responsible for giving life to the gloomy Comuna 20, where the Siloé neighborhood is located. There she not only brought the colors for the facades of the houses, but she filled the sector with energy with the creation of the Siloé Youth Symphony Orchestra. Graduated from the Universidad de Los Andes with a postgraduate degree in sociology in London, she currently directs the Sidoc Foundation, which develops the Siloé Visible social programs, in partnership with the Nueva Luz and ACCR foundations. His social work has allowed Comuna 20 to gradually transform into a setting for coexistence and artistic expression.
She is the daughter of Mauricio Armitage, one of the most important businessmen in the Region, owner of Siderurgica de Occidente and partner of the largest cement company in Valle del Cauca. Her father was kidnapped twice and has forgiven his victimizers. Christinne is a benchmark of social commitment.
Claudia Palacios
At 36 years old, she is considered the most important and recognized journalist from Valle del Cauca. In the mornings, she is part of the work desk of W Radio, one of the stations with the largest audience in the country. One day he is in Bogotá, another in Panama or Washington producing his CNN Influential program or moderating a forum for businessmen or the Inter-American Development Bank. In the pages of El Pueblo he publishes an in-depth interview every week. In his "free time" he writes books, gives talks, attends to the countless requests for interviews from the Latin American media. This versatility augurs him a leading role in Latin American journalism.
He maintains a strong link with Cali and the Valley and participates in several social campaigns. She is a recreational athlete. She changes everything to exercise motherhood with her adolescent son.
A graduate of the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, she began her career at Noticiero del Pacífico, on the Regional Channel Telepacífico, and then moved on to Noticiero CM&, where she worked until 1998. There she covered union marches, student protests, and strikes. In her rapid professional rise, she was linked to Caracol Noticias and in 2004, as a presenter and reporter for CNN en Español. He recently published his first book, with the Planeta publishing house: Are you leaving or are you staying?
Mabel Lara
At only thirty-three years old, she is already the best news presenter in Colombia, a recognition she has received in the last two years. But she wants to be more than that. First a journalist, he wants to do more reporting, special coverage, interviews, which is why he accepted the challenge of being part of the Blu Radio morning work desk with Néstor Morales.
She is expecting her first child, and despite this she has twelve- and fourteen-hour workdays. She leads social causes, especially those of the Afro-descendant community, and is a volunteer in social processes in Cauca and Cali.
She was born on August 22, 1980 in Puerto Tejada, Cauca, although she has lived all her life in Cali. His professional beginnings were on the regional channel Telepacífico. He studied at the Santiago de Cali University and later specialized in Social Management at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá.
He has won awards such as the Simón Bolívar prize for journalism in the category of best cultural broadcast for the program Nuestra Herencia. She is currently one of the most recognized presenters of the national newscasts and she has won the India Catalina award on several occasions for her news presentation. It has also been the image of institutional campaigns and business events.
Oscar Tunjo
Specialists in motor racing do not hesitate to predict that Tunjo will be a great figure in this sport worldwide and that he will go as far or further than Juan Pablo Montoya in Formula One. Since he was two years old, Tunjo has been riding cars of career and today he is a seasoned driver of the Lotus F1 team, in the Formula Renault Eurocup. At five years old, he already had a license as a rookie child pilot to compete.
Tunjo has the honor of being the youngest driver to be recognized by a federation worldwide, having passed the Mobile Karting School in Cali. Undoubtedly, in Tunjo talent, passion and youth are united, virtues necessary to achieve success.
Leonardo Salazar
Leonardo Salazar has the quality of combining gastronomy with creativity and entrepreneurship. He is recognized for having turned a pizzeria into a space to eat, share with friends or family and enjoy art. With the creation of Pizza al Paso, he not only managed to make this dish gain more followers, but also to make the pizzeria a benchmark for Cali residents and tourists. People would think that Salazar is a chef, but no! He is a thirty-five-year-old economist, with a master's degree in Education and Human Development, a diploma in Economics of Culture and a tutor in Philosophy of Sciences. For two years he lived in a church in the municipality of Toribío, in northern Cauca, where he did social work. His business started fourteen years ago in the Normandy neighborhood with a single employee and four tables; Today it has six commercial offices and eighty-two workers.
Edwing d'Angelo
Having designed garments for Michelle Obama, wife of the President of the United States, Barack Obama, brought him out of the anonymity of the garment workshops. Born in Buenaventura, Edwing, thirty-two years old, learned to sew with his aunts, until one day he took flight and crossed borders. He came to the United States, where he gave up his desire to become a lawyer to let his imagination run wild making suits. In the North Country it ended up being a favorite designer for hip-hop stars like Lil Kim, Nelly and Sean Paul and Kanye West. His workshop is in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. Her eyes are always set on participating in the New York Fashion Week shows.
Cristina Arango
They say that women are very good at running the household finances. Well, Cristina Arango has had nothing more or nothing more than to manage the finances of the Municipality, a huge challenge since the previous Administration gave her some coffers with a million-dollar delinquent portfolio. With a delicate appearance, Cristina Arango does not break down when the shares in her portfolio are cracked in the Council. On the contrary, this economist has been measured to organize an area of the Mayor's Office that previous administrations left in red balance. Perhaps the bravest thing has been the collection of taxes after the completion of the contract with Sicali. His professional career includes the direction of Statistics and Fiscal Studies of the Ministry of Finance and advisory services to the General Directorate of Macroeconomic Policy of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
Vagn Knudsen
Its forte is electronic commerce, that is, the buying and selling of products or services through the Internet and other computer networks. Vagn Knudsen, no more than thirty-three years old, is the manager of linio.com.co, a pioneer company in this sector. This professional graduated in Economics from Babson College, with a double master's degree in Administration, awarded jointly by the Paris School of Higher Studies in Commerce (HEC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was general manager of Laserteck and is currently a member of the board of directors of Agraf Industrial S.A., since before he obtained the award from Poder magazine and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for Business Dynamics in 2009.
Jackeline Renteria
Petite of body and with great charisma among the people, Jackeline Rentería produces Valle del Cauca pride by having obtained bronze medals during two versions of the Olympic Games. Born in Cali, twenty-seven years old, this Colombian wrestler participated for the first time in a competition Olympian in the Beijing Games in 2008, there she defeated the Romanian Ana Paval, 5-0, in the fight for third place. That triumph meant the second medal for Colombia in an Olympics: the first in that sport and the eleventh in its history. She has a scholarship at the Faculty of Law of the Javeriana University of Cali and is a faithful believer of God.
At the 2012 London Olympics, she won her second bronze medal when she defeated the Ukrainian Tetyana Lazareva 3-1, making her the first Colombian female athlete to achieve such victories.
Hector Cardenas
At an early age he became a coach, without having been a professional player before. Until recently, when Leonel Álvarez arrived, Héctor Cárdenas was the coach of Deportivo Cali. This thirty-four-year-old from Valle del Cauca graduated as a professional in Sports and Physical Activity from the National School of Sports, he did a specialization in sports training methodology, at the same academic entity. Before joining the Verdiblanco club, he worked with the Vallecaucana Soccer League and the Boca Juniors School. He inherited his taste for sports training from his father, who for many years has trained soccer promises in schools in Cali.
Andi Baiz
This native from Cali was born in 1975. He studied Film Production and Direction at New York University (NYU). After graduating he was mentored by French film director Raphael Nadjari and together with him produced four short horror films. He has worked in the production department on such feature films as Bringing Out the Dead, Zoolander, Cremaster 2, Maria Full of Grace, and The Fittest. His first feature film was Satanás, adapted from the novel by Mario Mendoza. Then came The Hidden Face and Roa. He declares that since he was a child he discovered his passion for cinema, when he proposed to his teachers to do their homework on video instead of written ones. From the current Colombian cinematographic movement he shares the humor, the cock bottle and the overflowing passion to create.
Esteban Copete
This Chocoano with a solid build, large arms adorned with tribal tattoos, began his relationship with music with the recorder: “This is how in Chocó children are introduced to the sounds of instruments and melodies," he says. His mother was the one who led him to the gates of this path that is now interwoven between the saxophone and the marimba in Cali. Although music comes from his cradle, he studied Fine Arts and the Music Department of the Universidad del Valle, from which he is a graduate. He is one of the musicians who has repeated triumphs the most at the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival.
Jose Alejandro Roca
This artist from Cali studied at the Antonio María Valencia Conservatory and at the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona with the teacher Stanislav Pochekin. His piano recitals in Germany, Spain, Italy, the United States, Poland, Ecuador and Colombia stand out. Internal teacher of the Colombian Opera, he is part of the group of teachers of the International Course for Lyrical Singers Scuola Italia in Urbania (Italy). Academic Director of the Master Class Program at the Cartagena International Music Festival and was recently invited to inaugurate the series 'Las Américas en Concierto' at the Mannes School of Music in New York.
María Eugenia Lloreda Piedrahita
This lawyer from the Universidad de Los Andes, born in 1975, has a master's degree in International Relations and International Law from Georgetown University. She is currently a director of Invest Pacific. She was Coordinator of Commercial Relations with the United States and Canada and later Head of the Office of International Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. She is the daughter of the former minister and former director of the newspaper El País, Rodrigo Lloreda Caicedo.
Roy Alejandro Barreras
Dolphin of politics in Valle del Cauca. From his father, Roy Barreras, current president of the Congress of the Republic, he inherited not only a taste for politics but also knowledge. Less than thirty years old, this political scientist from the Javeriana University, with an emphasis in Political Communication, is pursuing a master's degree in Economics at the Universidad de Los Andes. His free time is dedicated to the cultivation of the arts as he did with music, studying at said faculty at Javeriana. In addition, he is a cultural manager at the Sorbonne University in Paris. As a lobbyist, he is a champion of security, education and environmental issues. His beginnings took place at the national headquarters of the Partido de La U, where he was a practitioner.
Juanita Nieto Hernandez
The new Merchandiser & Marketing Manager of the prestigious Italian fashion house Valentino. She is a woman from Cali with a powerful smile and only thirty-one years old. She has no boyfriend and travels alongside one of the greatest in fashion: Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani. Juanita is the daughter of the lawyer Martha Hernández, a lady with discipline, character and intelligence to understand that education is the main input that parents must provide their children.
Juan Esteban Carranza
As an economist, he has left an important mark at different universities in the United States, including Yale and Wisconsin. Carranza, manager of the Cali-based Banco de la República, has Ph.D studies in Economics from Yale University, was a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and also at Icesi University in Cali. He completed his higher studies at the University of Los Andes. Among his contributions are research on the production chain and Colombian industrial markets and interaction with the global economy.
Lina Sinisterra
Political scientist with experience in political analysis, in the public and private sectors. She has a Master's degree in Government and Public Policy and a specialist in Management, Government and Public Affairs from the Externado de Colombia University. She is the girlfriend of Esteban Piedrahita, strategic planning adviser to the Cali mayor's office. He prefers vegetarian food. She likes sports a lot and is passionate about yoga. In addition to being the executive director of the Valle del Cauca Inter-union and Business Committee, she manages her family's company, Laverlan, dedicated to the production of biological products for poultry farming.
Andrés Ramírez
Since he was a student at the Autonomous University, he demonstrated his leadership with work in highly respected social entities. She smears herself with the neighborhood and needs, to train. Judicious, hard-working, serious, and compliant, he was the Terpel Foundation coordinator in Cali, was linked to the Alvaralice Foundation and is currently the director of the Tecnocentro Somos Pacífico, located in the Potrerogrande neighborhood, in Aguablanca.
Fernando Montaño
He was born in 1985 in Buenaventura. While children his age wanted to become soccer players, Fernando knew from the age of four that he only wanted to be a ballet dancer. She was fortunate enough to win multiple student exchanges and studied at some of the most renowned ballet academies in the world. He is the first Colombian to join the ranks of the Royal Ballet of London. She has danced for several world-renowned figures such as the Queen of England, Prince Charles, Michelle Obama, among others present at the G-20 meeting; and also before artists like Nicole Kidman, Claudia Schiffer, Mario Testino, Jude Law and many more.
Nicolas Orejuela Botero
Thirty-three years old. Lawyer with a master's degree in Public Law. Executive director of the Vallecaucana Action Unit since 2012, when he retired as dean of the Law School of the University of San Buenaventura. Being a teacher runs in the family, his father was also closely linked to teaching. At some point he would like to be part of the Executive and hopefully reach a body such as a Ministry of Education or a Vice Ministry.
Fabio Fernando Arroyave
One of the youngest councilors of the Sultana del Valle. Although he was born in Nariño, he has lived and grown up in Cali, he studied Law at the Javeriana University and at the age of twenty-two, in 2011, he was elected councilor of Cali for the Radical Change Party. He has served as a sports leader and political leader of youth. He is the son of Carmen Elena Rivas Barrios, an educator, and Fabio Arroyave, a former councilor, whom he follows in his footsteps in public life, because he declares himself convinced that this is the task they must meet young people in building city.
Michel Maya
A thirty-three-year-old businessman, a professional in Government and Foreign Relations, this member of the Green Party is remembered for having been the youngest candidate for the Senate in the 2010 elections. Today he is an active Cali councilor, member of the Committee on Plan y Tierras, which addresses thorny issues such as the operation of the MIO, mobility in the city, the replacement of animal-drawn vehicles, and requested greater benefits and property tax payment options for taxpayers. He was a professor at the San Buenaventura University School of Law. His father, Óscar Maya Correa, is an entrepreneur, merchant and pioneer of the pharmaceutical business in the Valley, with the Interdrogas drugstore chain. He maintains an opinion column biweekly in EL PUEBLO and is also a columnist for Diario Occidente and the Opinion portal programalallave.com.
Juan Fernando Reyes
Master in Public Law, with less than thirty-five years of age, he already aspires for the second time to the House of Representatives. The political vein runs through his family. His father, Guido Reyes, was an influential man in the department's politics, but died when Juan Fernando was little. He is a cousin of Senator Carlos Fernando Motoa. This lawyer from San Buenaventura University a year after graduating (at twenty-three years old) was elected as a Palmira councilman, with the highest vote. He has been so far the youngest in history to reach this position. He was a legal advisor to the National University of Colombia in the project for the Public Space Statute for Palmira, and until March of this year he served as Private Secretary to Mayor Rodrigo Guerrero. He is convinced that through politics the most important decisions are made to achieve great social transformations and that power is not an end, but rather the means for it.
Josías Fiesco
This twenty-three-year-old from Cali studies political science and philosophy at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was the founder of the student organization A la U con ideas. He became known in the media when he was the youth mayor of Cali (at the age of twelve), giving his opinion on issues such as insecurity, school transportation or the management of the mayor on duty. At the age of eleven, he gave his first statement as spokesman for the committee against the kidnapping of children in Colombia. This civic leader led initiatives such as Zapatico roto in Siloé and Terrón Colorado, where for seven consecutive years together with the Hanss Seidel Foundation (Germany) they delivered four thousand pairs of school shoes to children with limited economic resources.
Fiesco managed to get Metrocali to include MIO feeder buses through the university area of Cali in its routes and not charge a surplus. He was distinguished among the ten most outstanding young people in the country in 2009 by the Junior Chamber of Colombia and in 2006 the Council awarded him the Honor medal for civic merit.
Luis Felipe Rodríguez (LGBT community activist)
23-year-old graduate in foreign languages. Fluent in English, French, some Japanese and German. He studied DD. H H. in Peace Missions (Buenos Aires, Argentina), LGBTI activist, DD defender. HH., member of the National Organization of Liberal Youth and the Social Democratic Liberal Youth in Colombia.
Controversial. In recent weeks he has been the protagonist of the front pages of regional newspapers for being, with his partner, one of the few activists in Cali who openly declares himself homosexual and is fighting for the approval of gay marriage in Colombia.
He has participated in various political campaigns as a representative of the LGTBI community, he does not consider himself to be from any particular political party or movement, but he is a key player for politicians who defend equality for this community.
Angela Garzón
She is a philosopher from the National University, with a specialization in Negotiation and International Relations from the Universidad de los Andes. This year she decided to get fully involved in politics and she did so in the Liberal Party, where she works as Secretary of Social Affairs. He is the "angel" of his father, Vice President Angelino Garzón, whom he has accompanied during the stage of his illness, and that of his mother Monserrat Muñoz. He inherited the political vein and probably part of his electoral wealth both in Valle del Cauca and in Bogotá.
She will be a candidate for the House of Representatives for the capital of the republic and there is no one who does not give her as a safe representative, elected by a very high vote. She has been linked to the public sector for more than ten years. He was in the Directorate of International Humanitarian Law of the Foreign Ministry, then in the defunct National Television Commission (CNTV) and in the Bogotá Mayor's Office.
Andrés Santamaría Garrido
Thirty-three years old. Lawyer from the Javeriana University of Bogotá, with Political Studies from Harvard University, he has been awarded a scholarship by the government of Israel in Democracy and Leadership studies and by the Swedish Cooperation Agency and Lund University in Human Rights studies, with a Master's Degree in Public Policy from Macquarie University, Australia. It has stood out for its commitment in the defense of human rights. Former Ombudsman of the Valley and Ombudsman of Cali.
Angelica Mayolo
Her academic excellence and outstanding results led her to the Council of State and the Casa de Nariño. In 2011, for the second time, El Espectador and the Fundación Color de Colombia awarded the prize to outstanding Afro-descendants, including Angélica Mayolo , co-founder of the group Cojamos Lucha de Buenaventura received the distinction in the category of Young Afro-descendant.
In 2006 he entered the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Cali to study Law. He stood out for his sympathy, uncomplicated and was outlined as a promise of excellence. Indeed, his name became commonplace in the lists of outstanding students.
His good dedication was general and his inclination for the topics of public law was obvious. For this reason, almost six years later, at the age of 21, he sought his professional practice in the Council of State, the highest court of contentious-administrative jurisdiction. She was admitted as a judicant in the Third Section of that high body.
Alonso Otoya
Director of Municipal Administrative Development. He is an economist with an MBA in business administration and has accompanied Rodrigo Guerrero since he took office in 2012. In January he was mayor in charge of Cali, while Guerrero attended an invitation in the U.S.
Otoya belongs to one of the most important business families in the Valley. His last name is linked to the Giros y Finanzas company, to cement companies, to sugar mills, to the media. You could go into business with every chance of great success and money; however, he chose public service and what he likes is politics. It won't be long before he makes himself count in an election.
Administratively ordering the municipality and projecting it into the future in terms of service to the citizen is his commitment in the position he currently holds. He has already managed to save several billion pesos to the municipal coffers. All those consulted to prepare this list agreed that Otoya will be appearing in the most important positions in the region and at the national level in the coming years.
Juan Esteban Angel
A charismatic, friendly and simple man. Currently, he is the private secretary of the mayor of Cali, Rodrigo Guerrero. Deportivo Cali fan. Travel lover. Economist with an emphasis in International Business from the Icesi University, he has a master's degree in Business Administration from the EUDE, in Madrid (Spain). Scholar from the Swedish Agency for International Cooperation in studies of Democratic Institutions and Participatory Democracy. He was advisor to the Cali Council, Secretary General of the Interior and Private Secretary. He has also been part of various youth leadership groups in Valle del Cauca. He worked fully in political campaigns such as that of the former candidate and current presidential advisor for security Francisco José Lloreda. He was projected from his public office as a political promise supported by the Conservative Party.
Jonathan Eccehomo “El Momo” Romero Preciado
World boxing champion. Age: twenty-five years old, he is the son of a retired police officer, raised in the troubled El Retiro neighborhood, located in the populated district of Aguablanca, in the eastern communes of Cali. He was the one who defeated the Mexican Alejandro López in Tijuana and won the orbital super bantamweight boxing title.
Her story is as compelling as her fighting prowess. El Momo, as he is called affectionately and since he was a child, was very close to belonging to the gangs of eastern Cali; however, his desire to get ahead prevented him from falling into the world of crime. A promising sports career that is projected on the most renowned stages in the world.
Mauricio Ospina
He was born in 1975. He is the son of former M-19 commander Iván Marino Ospina and brother of former Cali mayor Jorge Iván Ospina. A homebody who assures that the last few years he has dedicated them to his legislative activities and to watching his two children grow up. Senator of the Republic for the Democratic Pole. He studied industrial engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and has a specialization in Organizational Control Systems and Management from the Universidad de Los Andes.
Recognized in politics for being a strategist, his first participation in this field was at the age of twenty-two, in 1997, when he was elected as mayor of the Local Administrative Board of Comuna 17 de Cali.
In 2007, he managed the political campaign with which his brother, doctor Jorge Iván Ospina, became Mayor of Cali in 2008. He is currently part of the Seventh Commission of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia. Due to his efforts in favor of the environment, he was elected in February 2012 as Executive President of the Globe Chapter Colombia (Global Organization of Legislators for a Balanced Environment).
Adriana Arboleda
She was born in 1978. Arboleda began her modeling career at the age of fifteen. She has been on the cover of magazines like Vanidades and Cosmopolitan. It was the official image of Café de Colombia. Adriana also ventured into acting in 2001, in the successful Colombian soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea.
Her debut as a show host was on the CM& In 2003, she had already appeared on shows like Panorama, American Blind and QAP News. A few months later, he went on to present the entertainment section of Caracol Noticias (today Noticias Caracol) from 7:00 p.m.
With the departure of Marulanda from the newscast, Arboleda went on to lead the entertainment section of the 12:30 broadcast (titled News from the Other World), together with Iván Lalinde, and also continued presenting said section in the broadcast of 7:00 p.m., together with the model and presenter Catalina Gómez. Together with Úrsula Vargues, he also hosts the program Espacio Vital on the Discovery Home and Health cable channel.
On July 7, 2007, Adriana presented, together with the music expert from La W Radio (Colombia), Manolo Bellon, the television broadcast for Colombia of Live Earth. Since 2009 she has been married to Harold Éder. This year (2013) he made an alliance with Éxito to design the Arkitect by Pink Filosofy line.
Johanna Ortiz (designer)
She studied Fashion Design at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and later specialized at Parsons School of Design in New York. After several years, she returned to Colombia, to open her first fashion "Atelier" where she began her work with swimsuits, beachwear, pret-a-porter & amp; girlfriends. Highlighting the elegance and femininity of women is what characterizes Johanna Ortiz. His collections have been presented at Cali Exposhow, Circulo de la Moda de Bogotá Fashion Week in Panama & Colombiamoda in Medellin.
She was invited to the White House in Washington to be part of the July 20 celebration for the independence of Colombia. She represented Colombia at the United Nations in New York at the Fashion for Development event organized by “Women Together”. I participate, representing Colombia in the "AIF International Designer Award", in Taipei, Taiwan, standing out as the best Latin American proposal.
She is currently nominated in two categories by Infashion magazine. Her new brand Pink Filosofy, in the company of the renowned Colombian model Adriana Arboleda, has been widely accepted for being an innovative, ultra-feminine and versatile concept, all with a social initiative. This brand received, after its catwalk at Colombiamoda, the Award as "Revelation Designers" at the Cromos de la moda awards. One of her greatest interests is working with indigenous people displaced by violence and mothers who are heads of households. Together with them, she has learned to value and work with the fibers and crafts of her country, which she includes in each collection she presents.
Orlando Duque
Considered the best high-altitude diver in the world, Orlando Duque was born on September 11, 1974 in Cali. At the age of 10 he started in the sport of cliff diving and in 1999 he began to compete in Europe without having official support. In 2000 he obtained his first championship and since then he has won the Cliff Diving World Championship ten times. For 13 years it has received the sponsorship of the international brand Red Bull. A simple man who took on the challenge of doing what he liked even though he wasn't sure he could make a living from it. Today he is an internationally recognized athlete. Married to a Hawaiian woman whom he considers his inseparable companion. He does not live in Cali but lives grateful for the land where he was born, which is why he visits the sultana of the valley almost every year to participate in activities related to diving.
Maria Catalina Robayo Vargas
She was born on May 12, 1989. Her beginnings were as a model, then she was a candidate for Miss Colombia for the department of Valle and was crowned the National Queen of Beauty in 2010. At the time she was twenty-two years old. She is 175 centimeters tall and has perfect measurements. Born in Cali, she is the daughter of Katty Robayo Vargas. As a newborn, she was taken to the municipality of Palmira where she grew up. He graduated from the Sacred Heart of Jesus High School. Law student at the Pontifical Javeriana University. Her skills are verbal expression and dancing. Fan of América de Cali. In Miss Universe, Catalina entered the group of sixteen semifinalists. She has done some television work as a presenter.
