Head of Costa Rica’s Investment Agency Resigns

The head of CINDE, Costa Rica’s investment promotion agency, is preparing to leave the building.

Jorge Sequeira Picado will put an end to his eigh year tenure as CINDE’s Managing Director, forcing one of the region’s most succesful IPAs to search for a new leader.

“After analyzing this for more than a year, I have decided –and informed the CINDE Board of Directors and my team of lead professionals– that it is time to pass the baton and open an opportunity to new leaders,” said Sequeira, under whose leadership the agency successfully drew millions of dollars in investment, notably in the services sector.

It will be until March 31 of this year when CINDE appoints new leadership, the agency informed in a press release. In the meantime, Sequeira will continue his duties as Managing Director.

CINDE is the third IPA in the region that has seen change at the top over the past year. Jampro’s president stepped down in October, and ProColombia named a new president that same month.

Eric Scharf, chairman of CINDE’s board of directors, stated that the agency already begun the process to appoint Sequeira’s replacement.

“We thank Jorge for the incredible leadership he has shown in his almost one decade with CINDE, during which he has directly contributed to modernizing the agency, improving CINDE’s quality standards, and positively impacting Costa Rica’s development,” Scharf commented.

The agency claims to have secured investment from more than 400 foreign companies over the past 40 years, making Costa Rica a favorite hunting ground for US companies looking to launch Nearshore operations.

As many as 103 foreign companies –such as Roche, Intel, Concentrix, Firestone, and Terumo– expanded their activities in the country in 2021, a growth of 30% compared to the previous year.

About 41% of these investments came from the United States. The rest came from a variety of countries, including Switzerland, Spain, Israel, India, South Africa, Brazil and Chile.