San José, Costa Rica. April 18, 2023. CINDE, Costa Rica's foreign direct investment (FDI) promotion agency, has appointed Marianela Urgellés Batalla as its new Managing Director.
Urgellés’s selection took place after a formal and transparent process involving a candidate analysis led by the CINDE
Board of Directors and based on the technical foundations for a professional profile that could meet the position’s demands. The agency also received expert support from a recruiting firm that analyzed more than 200 résumés.
Marianela Urgellés was awarded the appointment based on her outstanding references and her professional profile, which aligns with CINDE’s strategic vision for coming years: to continue supporting employment goals by attracting FDI to
Costa Rica, as part of the agency’s joint work with the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) and the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER). In 2022 alone, the results of this foreign trade triad climbed to a record number of 40 new investment projects and a gross employment generation of around 25,000 jobs.
Eric Scharf, President of the CINDE Board of Directors, explained:
"Marianela understands our interaction with multinational corporations and, with that mentality and experience, she knows the needs that must be solved to remain competitive in a league as demanding as the one in which Costa Rica finds itself, in order to attract more FDI to the country. Our new managing director has the ideal experience and skills to position CINDE for continued contributions to Costa Rica’s social and economic development, particularly in regions outside the GAM, as established by our institutional vision.” Marianela Urgellés Batalla, General Director of CINDE, stated:
“After a long career in the multinational sector, I gladly take on the challenge of collaborating with Costa Rica – and CINDE is an excellent place to do so. I join a strong team comprised of professionals with many years of experience, together with young talent willing to continue making Costa Rica the perfect location for leading companies to fuel their development and with it, create employment for our people.”Career Path Maríanela Urgellés Batalla comes to CINDE with extensive experience at Intel. In this global company, she recently headed processes in charge of more than 450 employees in Costa Rica, Malaysia, and the United States. During her 25-year career in the
multinational sector, she has been recognized for her leadership in
corporate services, finance,
manufacturing, engineering, and strategic programs for global teams in the high-tech sector.
Likewise, her world-class transformative work led her to leadership in Intel's shared services expansion program and digital finance modernization program in Costa Rica. Urgellés was also one of the leaders in charge of transforming manufacturing processes into research and development services for this leading technology company in Costa Rica.
The new Managing Director of CINDE is a recognized leader in inclusion issues at the national level and serves as a corporate reference on the topic.
Marianela Urgellés Batalla is married and a mother.
About CINDEFor more than 40 years, the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) has worked to attract foreign direct investment to the country. Throughout its history, CINDE has supported more than 400 multinational companies established in Costa Rica, in diverse industries including manufacturing, services, life sciences, and tourism infrastructure. A private, non-political organization declared of national interest, the agency has since 2017 – and now, for five consecutive years – been listed by the International Trade Center as the best national investment attraction agency in the world.
