Roy Zuñiga has a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with emphasis in Operations and Systems Strategies from the University of Valladolid, Spain. He also completed doctoral studies in Business Administration at the Institute of Science and Technology of the University of Manchester.
Additionally, he holds a Master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and Environmental Management from the University of Oregon in the United States. He graduated with honors from INCAE, where he completed a Masters in Business Administration. He has worked for multiple companies in more than 40 countries and 4 continents, such as BASF, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, Coca Cola FEMSA, Pfizer, among many others.
How did it lead to your involvement with the CAHI Fellows Program?
Roy: It has been interesting, because I was a business student, but I was involved in projects in the United States, England and Spain, which led me to learn about the healthcare systems in those countries. I was attracted by the great variability, the pathology-related issues, the complexity of these systems, the synchronization problems. I realized that I could get to work on that, so when I returned to INCAE I was given the opportunity to immerse myself in a hospital to identify everything that could be done to improve hospital processes.
From those experiences I have developed a path related to health systems, I have worked for the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, then in Paraguay I did something similar, year after year I have done projects and successful implementations in health systems in the region. This is a field that in INCAE we feel very comfortable to address, due to the accumulated experience. We can see the contributions we are able to make, how the people who pass through our classrooms become agents of change in their countries.
You have been involved with the CAHI Fellows Program for several years. How have you seen the evolution of the groups?
Roy: Year after year I think the group is the best, but the next year I have the same perception. The truth is not that one group is better than another, but that they are all intense and committed. In perspective, in these 5 years, what changes in each group are the challenges they face. What CAHI does is to radiate in the region, and has been forming this network of CAHI Fellows projects, where there is more and more sophistication, which generates pressure on the new generations because there are already wonderful initiatives. The next generations must continue to surpass the level of the previous groups.
What is the learning that the groups achieve in your sessions?
Roy: I teach a project-focused methodology, and in projects I am not only interested in the objective, but also in the resource, the time, the processes, the activities. My task is to give them what they need to plan their project from a practical perspective and applying the concepts to their particular reality. I am very interested in how they are going to manage it, we prepare them for it and we follow up on it.
How do you get involved with the CAHI Fellows Network?
Roy: Each time the commitment is greater. We want the projects to be a success, that at the end of this training cycle they arrive with a value proposition where they show society in the region everything they have done thanks to CAHI's support. Through INCAE we make sure that the academic part has a happy ending.
What is your vision for CAHI going forward?
Roy: CAHI is making a great change in the region, it has demonstrated it in these 6 years of permanence and commitment, you realize it because when you go to a country and meet people related to the health sector they tell you that they know CAHI Fellows, or they ask you how to participate, how to implement their projects. So you realize that it is a catalyst for change in the region.
