The Aval Group continues with the changes in its senior management and now announced the arrival of Gerardo Hernández to the presidency of Banco Av Villas, which will imply his departure from the legal vice presidency of Banco de Bogotá, a position he held since 2021.
Hernández, who previously held the position of co-director at Banco de la República, He held various positions within the institution for 16 years, including those of executive manager and secretary of the Board. He was also Colombia’s Financial Superintendent for six years.
He is a lawyer graduated from the University of the Andes, with a specialization in Administrative Law from the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario. He also completed a postgraduate degree in Economics at The New School for Social Research in New York, and conducted studies on central banking at the International Monetary Fund.
Hernández also held the position of Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, was head of the Business Development Unit of the National Planning Departmentand advised the executive director for Colombia and Peru at the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation in Washington.
Changes in the Aval Group
The decision adds to the changes that the Aval Group has been making, which began last year and included the retirement of its founder Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo in March of this year.
During his farewell speech, he said that it is necessary to make way for new generations, Therefore, he made official the appointment of his son Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutiérrez as his successor..
With the announcement, Sarmiento Angulo left the Group of which he is the founder, a company that is today the largest financial conglomerate in Colombia. At that time, the banker highlighted that today they employ more than 120,000 peoplewith controlling interests in financial institutions such as Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Banco Av Villas, Corficolombiana and the pension and severance fund administrator Porvenir.
The founder’s retirement gave way to his son Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutiérrez replacing him as president of the Board of Directors, so María Lorena Gutiérrezpresident of Corficolombiana until this year, became the new CEO of Aval.
Sarmiento Gutiérrez leads an entity that It has more than 14 million bank clients and more than 16 million members of pension and severance funds..
The CEO of the Groupfor its part, He came to office after participating in the growth of its assets from $3.4 billion in June 2018 to $11.9 billion in December 2023.She is an industrial engineer graduated from the Universidad de los Andes, with a specialization in finance, and holds a Master in Administration (MBA) from the same institution. He also holds a PhD in administration from Tulane University in the United States.
The changes in the banks and in Corficolombiana
Gutiérrez’s move from Corficolombiana led to the confirmed arrival this week of Ana Milena López.
He is an economist from Harvard University and holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School. Within her experience she has served as director of Public Credit and the National Treasury.vice president of emerging markets at JP Morgan in London and associate for Latin America at the same investment bank in New York.
With the arrival of López to the position that he will assume in the coming weeks, there are several challenges that he will have to face, among them, The primary task is the generation of value for the more than 8,000 shareholders who, as of 2023, had a portion of Corficolombiana and who year after year expect good profits that translate into dividends.
In line with this, Infrastructure challenges will also be part of López’s agenda. “As a Corficolombiana, It is a structurer of large infrastructure projects, the first challenge comes from that side. And no large infrastructure investments or large projects have been announced,” explained Gregorio Gandini, founder of Gandini Analysis.
Besides, There were also changes in the banks, such as the arrival of María Fernanda Suárez at Banco Popular and César Prado at Banco de Bogotá.
First of all, the Bank of Bogotá, After 35 years it will see the departure of its president, Alejandro Figueroa Jaramillo, one of the bankers with the greatest tradition in the entire Colombian financial system.
The Board of Directors of Banco de Bogotá appointed César Prado Villegas as the new president, who had been serving as president of Banco de Occidente.
To replace Villegas, the Board of Directors of Banco de Occidente appointed Gerardo Silva Castro as president of the bank. Silva has been associated with that entity since 1994 and has been serving as Vice President of Companies since 2014.
The changes did not end here and included the arrival of Maria Fernanda Suarez to the Popular Bank. In September of last year, the board of directors appointed her as the new president of the entity, following the departure of Carlos Eduardo Upegui Cuartas.
Suárez has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors. She has held important positions such as President of Accenture Colombia, and was also Minister of Mines and Energy during the government of former President Iván Duque.
Likewise, she was Executive Vice President of Strategy and Finance at Ecopetrol.
In an interview with LR, Suárez announced that the financial institution is reconfiguring its services to address what she calls the silver economy. In addition, he highlighted the solidity of the financial system and described it as a “very resilient” sector, which is well capitalized.
