Carmen Padilla, Director of the CENTER FOR COMPETITIVENESS, SOCIAL INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP, ECOTEC University. Leading activities to promote local competitiveness: integration of academia with international private sector, development of specialized research in clusters, promotion of high-impact scientific development with transfer of results through innovative training programs for professionals and entrepreneurs as well as transfer of international know-how from the Global Competitiveness Network MOC founded at Harvard Business School by Michael Porter. Previously, she worked as Dean of Research in charge of 5 Research and Innovation Institutes of the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil. Achievements: Padilla won the Competitiveness Review Prize, awarded to the best research of 2022 by the MOC network at Harvard. Member of the CAPIG board of directors (Chamber of Small Industrials of Guayas), she leads the scientific research of the VIQTORIA Project for entrepreneurs of the Mastercard Strive foundation, BID-Lab, Google for entrepreneurs and local allies.