QS Higher Ed Summit: Americas 2023

Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, was born in the city of Santo Domingo on July 12, 1967, married to Raquel Arbaje Soni, and is the father of three daughters, Esther Patricia, Graciela Lucía and Adriana Margarita. He is the son of businessman and political leader José Rafael Abinader Wassaf, and Mrs. Rosa Sula Corona Caba,

He studied high school at Colegio Loyola, obtained a degree in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo. He completed postgraduate studies in Project Management at the Arthur D. Little Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also studied Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering at Harvard University and Advanced Management at Darmouth College in New Hampshire. Elected vice president of the Dominican Revolutionary Party at the 2005 National Convention.

He is currently Executive President of the ABICOR Group, which has developed and operated important tourism projects in the country. This family group directed the business project of what is today the company Cementos Santo Domingo, of which he is Vice President He has been president of the Association of Hotels of Sosúa and Cabarete and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES), Member of the Board of Directors of the Fundación Universitaria O&M

Recognized by the State Congress of Rhode Island, United States, for his career in the public, educational and business fields. He also received recognition from the Mayor of Boston and the Massachusetts State Senate for his contributions to higher education, civic engagement, and community service.

He was a candidate for the vice presidency of the Republic for the Dominican Revolutionary Party, in the 2012 presidential elections. Luis Abinader was elected presidential candidate at the PRM convention held on April 26, 2015.

His candidacy is chosen with more than 70% of the votes assuming a victory recognized from the first bulletin by the rest of the applicants. He worked to achieve a presidential project that unified all the opposition and the majority of society with a view to the May 2016 elections.

Despite participating in very adverse conditions, with a party that barely had a year and a half of existence and competing with a president who had all the resources of the State in his favor, Abinader obtained more than 35% of the votes in the elections of May 15, 2016, leaving the PRM as the second political force in the Dominican Republic.

For 2019 he is elected again as a candidate for the presidency in the internal convention of his party, becoming the President Elect of the Dominican Republic in the presidential elections of July 5, 2020, for the period 2020-2024.

Harold Castilla is a Eudist priest who served as lecturer and dean at UNIMINUTO before becoming its academic vice-rector and president. He studied philosophy at the Juan XXIII Major Seminary and Santo Tomas University, and theology at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He is a specialist in social ethics and the social doctrine of the Church, having studied at the Gregorian University in Rome.

F. Harold holds a doctorate in education from Nova Southeastern University in the US. He has been trained in Senior Management and participated in the President’s program at the Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).

Father Harold is also a member of some boards of directors in which they stand out. UNIVERSIA, Connect Bogotá, ASCUN, APICE, Red Mutis, among others.

CEO and founder of SenecaLab, co-founder of the Podcast EdUp en Español and leader of the Panama chapter of the Inter-American Association of EdTechs Holds IAEE, Member of the Board of Directors of APEDE, permanent advisor of REALCUP, and member of CONEAUPA. She was rector of two universities in Panama and President of the Association of Private Universities of Panama, Director of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Private Enterprise and moderator of the Panama table in NAFSA.

She is an international speaker and has published articles in newspapers and magazines such as the Revista Colombiana de Computación. She is certified in Project Management from the University of Texas at Arlington and in Finance from INCAE. She has a Master’s degree in E-Learning from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in which she obtained the distinction of meritorious thesis and is a Systems Engineer from the UNAB.

PhD of Education; Phd of Law. 4 Postdocorats. Economist; Distance Education Specialist; Marketing Specialist; Master in Educational Management. He is currently Academic Director of the Universidad de la Empresa (UDE) of Uruguay, Chancellor for Latin America of the National Open and Distance University (UNAD) of Colombia and Director of the Virtual Educa Observatory. He is a Level II Researcher in the National System of Researchers of Uruguay. At the international level, he was Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) and Rector of the Institute of Higher National Studies (IAEN) of Ecuador. In Uruguay he was Director of the National Book Institute, Director of the National Television System and Vice President of the Official Broadcasting, Radio-television and Entertainment Service (SODRE). He has writen 27 books. He received the Uruguayan National Literature Award three times and was distinguished with 7 Honoris Causa Doctorates by universities in the region.

Leigh Kamolins is Director of Analytics & Evaluation at QS. He is responsible for the organization’s acclaimed rankings and ratings as well the suite of Analytics solutions that provide comparative. He has a background in performance evaluation, quality assurance and evaluation system design spanning the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom and Australia. Before joining QS, Leigh led a team at the UK Department for Education reporting on the performance of England’s biggest school reform program in 100 years. He also has previous experience in the public sector in Australia, designing anti-corruption and human rights monitoring frameworks. He is passionate about equalities and access to quality education. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Monash University in Australia which included a period of studying abroad at King’s College London. Leigh speaks widely about evaluation frameworks and performance trends at a range of international forums. 

Dr Nigel Healey is Professor of International Higher Education and Vice President (Global and Community Engagement) at the University of Limerick. He is currently serving as Interim Provost and Deputy President. Prior to his appointment at the University of Limerick in April 2020, he held senior academic positions at Fiji National University, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Canterbury and Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as teaching positions at the University of Leicester and Leeds Beckett University.

Dr Healey has served as an economic policy advisor to the prime minister of Belarus and the deputy minister of economy of the Russian Federation and managed a number of multinational research and economic development projects in Europe and Asia. His current research interests are in the internationalization of higher education, transnational education and higher education policy and management.