Catalina is a Senior Urban Transport Specialist at the World Bank. A Colombian national, Catalina recently rejoined the Bank after 4 years working in the technology sector. Catalina has worked for the Bank in Latin America, East Asia and now in Africa.
Her work at the Bank has ranged from supporting governments in structuring and implementing a National Urban Transport program, advising on transport subsidy reform, pioneering open data and big data initiatives in transport, leading the preparation of the first transport - climate change operational strategy for the Bank, working on logistics strategy in Latin America, designing an urban CDD program, and supporting transit reform and modernization across Africa and Latin America. Catalina leads the Bank’s work on geospatial platforms for transport and drones through the management of the African Drone Forum.
Catalina is very passionate about technology and the role it plays in transforming cities. This passion led her to leave the Bank and work for the private sector with technology companies like Amazon and then Uber. At Uber she was the General Regional Manager for the Andean Region, managing one of Uber's largest markets, during her tenure at Uber she was also Strategy Manager for Middle East and Africa, responsible for setting strategic direction and business plans for Uber’s hyper growth continents covering all the region from South Africa to Pakistan.
Catalina is a recognized voice in the transport community, and has co-authored and published a number of working papers/blogs on urban transport research (jobs accessibility, open data, big data, clean technology, logistics, disaster risk management and gender). Catalina is an engineer with a double Master in Urban Planning and Transport Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. She also holds an MBA from INSEAD. Catalina loves to do triathlons and now based in Tanzania is spending all her free time kitesurfing.