Andres M Jarrin, MA. MSc

Chief Director at URBANA International (CEO/International Operations)
(593)22908700 (593)22908701 (Phone-Fax)
(593)42309668
1 305-3201700 (Direct International)
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Urban and Regional Planner/PPP Project Specialist

Comprehensive Urban and Regional Planning, Urban Economics, Sustainable Urbanism, Transportation Planning, Public-Private Partnerships, Infrastructure Programs, Development/Finance, Affordable Housing Design/Policy Programs, Environmental Management Planning (LEED), Urban Design, Demography and Urban Information Systems.

Mr. Jarrin is an experienced senior consultant with more than 30 years of experience in Urban and Regional Planning, Affordable Housing Issues, Urban Economics, Municipal Strengthening, Sustainable-New Urbanism, and Computer Information Systems. He has a M.A. (and has completed all coursework for a Ph.D.) in Urban Planning and a M.Sc. in International Studies-Economics. Mr. Jarrin has been a team leader for many international development projects including several projects with USAID, CIDA, WORLD BANK and the IDB in several countries of the western hemisphere.

He has published a number of reports and articles on housing, urban and regional development in the Netherlands (Bowcentrum International Education, Institute for Housing Studies, Erasmus University), and in the US (University of Florida at Gainesville). Mr. Jarrin has studied extensively and has practical work experience in comprehensive town planning and housing delivery systems design, from Urban Needs Assessment Models to the Finance and Design Parameters and the needed Institutional Structure.

His years of experience as a urbanism planner, housing and computer program specialist make him an excellent professional to successfully lead any consulting effort.

Milton Alfonso Ortega, MPA

Head of Operations and Business Development in North America (Canada, USA, Mexico)
403-457-5423 (Canada)
403-689-8085
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1 503-8959426 (Direct International)

Senior Consultant Public Policy & PPP Projects

Sustainable Urban Development Projects , Government Reforms and Institutional Capacity: Institutional and organizational evaluation, restructuring and design, decentralization and privatization; The Use of Evaluations in National and International Governance, Designing and Building Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Systems; Impact Evaluation; Performance Measurement, Community Organization and Social Planning, Organizational capacity-building, Public Policy Development, Public-Private Partnerships: Institutional Structures and Capacity Building.

Mr. Ortega is originally from Quito, Ecuador. He a Bachelor degree in International Relations from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, a Master degree in Public Administration from Portland State University, and he is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration and Policy from the same university. During the last decade, he has worked on a variety of research projects in the social and policy fields. He was involved with the Latino Network Civic Capacity Project; the City of Portland's VisionPDX -Project which received the 2009 American Planning Association Public Outreach Award-; the U.S. States Cities and the Third Global E-Governance Survey Projects with the E-Governance Institute at Rutgers University.

He collaborated with the research on the evolution of social institutions in the Galápagos Islands lead by Dr. Herremans from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary and worked as Research Specialist at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). He currently works as project coordinator at the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies (AAISA). Mr. Ortega provides his expertise to nonprofit organizations in Calgary. Finally, he is the vice-president of the United Nations Association of Canada (UNAC) -Calgary Regional group and Director of Research and Project Initiatives at the Foundation for Democratic Advancement.

Foundation for Democratic Advancement.

Jose Herrera, MPA

Manager of Business Development in South and Central America
(593)2908700
(593)2908701
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Business Development/Economics/Project Evaluation Specialist, MPA

Development projects and sustainable growth, studies of supply and demand for goods and services, organizational coordination to gather information, statistics, policy advice and management of social projects - tourism, and cross-cutting economic issues in project development and the implementation phase.

Mr. Herrera, was born in Quito, Ecuador, and graduated as a Financial Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Subsequently, he earned two master degrees from the IUP (University Institute of Graduate Studies of Spain), the first in Finance and the second in Business Administration. Over the past 10 years, he has collaborated with URBANA in the regional administration of the business development unit and been URBANA’s key staff member responsible for relationships between the company and regional governments and national and international entities. In that way and through the prestige of the company, URBANA has been placed on the short list of large projects such as the Light Rail Transit System of Quito, TRA-Q, and the Regional Development Plan of Guayas and the Santa Elena IDB Program with the NOBIS foundation.

Additionally, Mr. Herrera has participated in projects sponsored by Corpei, Bid, Caf, as well as a study by the World Bank to open new global investment markets, a study of Ecuadorian Cocoa, a study and the dissemination of sustainable projects in Guayas and Santa Elena.

Andres Mateo Jarrin, BA

 Areas of Participation: Transportation planning, Low Income Housing, Policy Programs Specialist

Transportation Planning, GIS Comprehensive Development, Urban and Regional Planning, Development/Finance, Affordable Urban Solutions and Policy Programs Specialist.

Mr. Jarrin has been working as an intern in the company for over six months. He has been a project assistant helping to prepare bidding proposals for transportation development projects in Ecuador. He has recently represented the company in Taiwan, helping to expand contact networks with other engineering and planning companies in Asia. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Mr. Jarrin holds a Bachelor degree in Urban Studies and Geography from York University in Toronto, Canada from where he graduated with the highest academic honors (summa cum laude). During these last few years, he has been working mainly on transportation and urban growth policy on a variety of research projects, including geographic information system analysis. He has fieldwork experience designing and collecting surveys to assess low income housing needs in Manta, Ecuador. He has worked in Canada for Statistics Canada in the Census of 2011.

He has been very active with UN Habitat for Humanity programs in several urban/rural communities in Ecuador and contributed to the company as a volunteer posted to lead urban planning related activities.

Letty Chang, Urban Development Law

Head of Operations and Business Development
(593)42309668
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 Senior Consultant Urban Development Law, Public Policy & Bylaw Legal Projects

The use of the legal framework that guides National and International Governance, Urban Development Bylaws and special provisions relative to the operation of certain acts within national and local legal frameworks. Monitoring and Evaluation of legal matters relative to project management; Impact Evaluation; Institutional Performance Measurement, Community Organization and legal planning, Organizational capacity-building and Public Policy Development.

Ms. Chang holds a BA in Urban Law and a post graduate degree in Regional Development at FUNDICOT and Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Madrid- España. During the last decade, she has been working as a senior legal specialist on urban issues dealing mostly with the operations of legal frameworks needed to implement projects and to operate them. She has been involved with the China Network Civic Coalition in South America in a Public Outreach role. Also, she is currently working as a project coordinator of URBANA activities in Ecuador in a variety of functions according to the scale and interactions required with government counterpart officials on a myriad of projects and themes.

SONNY LOW, B.S. in Business Administration, University of California/Berkeley, Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.), University of Washington/Seattle.

(619) 397-1441
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Urban Planner/Municipal Development Specialist/Housing Programs Policy/ Implementation/ Design Specialist

Mr. Low is a Housing and Urban Development Officer with over 35 years of experience who designed, managed, implemented, and evaluated diverse multi-phased affordable housing and urban infrastructure loan financed and technical assistance grant programs throughout Latin America and the Caribbean—Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Panama, Dominican Republic, and co-financed with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). With the U. S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Regional Housing and Urban Development Offices (RHUDOs) in Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, and Guatemala, and from Washington to support Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) operations.

He led teams of international consultants to collaborate with host country representatives to successfully design affordable housing and urban infrastructure programs for low income families that changed government, private banking, savings and loan, cooperative, and credit union policies to target loans and incorporate risk sharing for sites and service housing projects, micro-enterprise, and infrastructure programs ranging from rural electrification to potable water and road construction for urban and rural communities.

Moreover, he evaluated implementation progress and measured production results and policy changes of programs throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and in Russia and the former Soviet Republics, Mr. Low managed technical assistance from private U. S. real estate associations and property management firms to capacitate and train local municipalities in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and other Eastern European countries who overnight were given the responsibility to manage and maintain millions of housing units that were originally built by central governments in those countries. From USAID headquarters, Mr. Low designed and secured Washington approval and funding for shelter sector assistance to the Chilean Housing Cooperatives and for a South America Disaster Prevention, Mitigation, and Preparedness (PMP) program implemented primarily in Ecuador and Paraguay.

Most recently in 2010, Mr. Low contributed to an independent consultant team tasked with identifying “lessons learned” and “best practices” from the 1985 Mexico City earthquake and the 1960 Concepcion, Chile quake for Haiti’s consideration as it rebuilt after that country’s devastating earthquake of 2010. In summary, Mr. Low’s diverse experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Washington, and Eastern Europe with programs and policies that have worked or not once implemented make him one of those senior advisors who should be retained by teams to start up new initiatives, evaluate midterm progress, and/or assess ultimate program results, impacts, and policy changes associated with urban programs or activities presented to government decision-makers to consider for continuation, new funding, or close-out.

Raul B. Garcia, MArch, MCP, Ph.D

Head of Operations and Business Development in North and Central America
305-8888760
305-4916201
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Self Sustaining Community Development and Planning Information Systems/Future Urban Views/Climate Change Economics

Professional and Teaching Experience: Planning, urbanism and preservation consultant to various firms and public entities, in projects for cities in Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean. This has included work for state, national and international organizations such as the World Bank’s Social Investment Fund Program, UNESCO's International Council For Monuments ans Sites, the World Monuments Fund's Monuments Watch program, the Organization of American States' Monuments of the Greater Caribbean Project, the Smitsonian Institution's Seeds of Change Exhibition, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Strategies Evaluation Study, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the Florida Department of State Bureau of Historic Preservation, and the Florida Heritage Museum in Miami. Also, Mr. Garcia has served as a member of the City of Miami Beach Preservation Preservation/Design Review Board.

Extensive teaching and funded research exprience at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, and Broward College. At the Univeresity of Florida, Mr. Garcia served as Director of the Center for Tropical Architecture, Planning and Construction (TROPARC) and Fieldwork Director of the Preservation Institute of the Greater Caribbean.

Membership and leadership experience in various professional and special-purpose organizations, including the Interamerican Planning Society, Congress for the New Urbanism, Society of Architectural Historians, Society for American City and Regional Planning History, International Council on Monuments and Sites, Council for Monuments and Sites of the Greater Caribbean, Council for the Conservation of the Architectural Heritage of Latin America, Cuban Cultural Heritage, U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation, Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Miami Design Preservation League, and Dade Heritage Trust.