Leadership Team
President: Eduardo Ergas
Eduardo Ergas is an entrepreneur with broad experience in the financial sector, especially in banks, venture capital funds, and topics related to entrepreneurship. He belongs to several directories of companies in Chile and the USA, among others. He created a venture capital fund as a seed capital in the Silicon Valley. Between 1998 and 2001, Ergas was the president of Endeavor Chile, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship. He was also part of the council for Endeavor Global, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, he was the director of the Council of the Production Development Corporation (CORFO) in Chile.
Ergas went to the Sillicon Valley in 2000 with his wife and children. This trip confirmed his fascination for scientific development as he discovered he had much in common with scientists. Thus, he returned to Chile with the desire to start new initiatives related to the sciences. In 2004, he started the EcoScience Foundation in order to create a bridge between the scientific community and the rest of Chilean society. This foundation seeks to rescue the cultural, natural, and scientific heritage of Chile.
Secretary: Mónica Weisner Horowitz (coming soon).
Treasurer: Patricia López, M.D.I.
Patricia studied Architecture at the University of Chile and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. She worked in Spain for five years and in Chile for over 10 years as the director of architecture firms. She is the founder and director of the multimedia educational productions company called Audiopodcast. She was born near the Strait of Magellan in Southern Chile, and her main professional motivations and goals are to contribute to the sustainable development of Chile through preservation, outreach, and development of the national cultural and ecological heritage.
Executive Team
Financial Director: Ricardo Díaz
Ricardo splits his work and passions between the private sector and academia, finding science and technology as a natural vehicle that connects both worlds. He studied engineering at the University of Chile and is currently working as a manager of an investment fund in Santiago, Chile. Ricardo is a lover and connoisseur of the Patagonia, where he lived for 17 years.
Scientific Director: Sebastián Bernales, PhD
Sebastian first obtained his Bachelor's degree in Science and Biochemistry at the Catholic University of Chile and later his PhD in cellular biology at the University of California, San Francisco. Through the Cience and Life Foundation in Chile, he is the Project Manager for research of Medivation Inc., an American biotechnology company, in order to develop new therapies for various human diseases, including prostate cancer.
Executive Director: Marcela Colombres, PhD
Marcela studied Biochemistry at the Catholic University of Chile with a minor in Fundamental Physics. She later obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences with a focus in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the same university, where she focused on the area of Molecular Neurobiology and graduated with honors. Colombres has written several scientific articles and chapters for science textbooks and has participated actively in national and international scientific conferences. She has written and taught courses at the university.
Project Director: Diana Gurovich
Diana has worked as an evaluator, administrator, manager, and director of projects for several companies and governmental institutions. She has been an advisor and consultant for several fields and has taught classes at several universities in fields including Accounting, Financial Evaluation, Administration, and Evaluation. She studied Commercial Engineering at the University of Chile. She also studied at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies: Security and Defense.
Friends of the foundation
Fundación Ciencia y Vida (www.cienciavida.cl).