Menas de Argentina

Menas de Argentina SA
Uruguay 5* "9"
C 1015 ABL Buenos Aires
Argentina
Tel: +54 11 4373 7479
Fax: +54 11 4373 7484

Directors

Antonio José Recca, president
Carlos María Regúnaga, director
Rodolfo Agustín Lira, director
Dr Charles Gurdon, director

Antonio José Recca, president, Menas de Argentina

Antonio José Recca has long experience in the oil and petrochemicals industries, beginning his career with Esso in 1975 in a sales and marketing role in charge of international marine lubes and aviation. He has since worked for Houghton, Quaker Chemical and DAPSA and in 1998 became regional head manager for Latin America for Gulf Oil International, also acting as chairman for Argentina and Brazil. At Gulf he was responsible for purchasing plants in Argentina and Brazil, reshaping the company's operations in Chile, and appointing distributors and licensees in all other Latin American countries.

Antonio has a masters' degree in administration. He is a marketing post-graduate in administration and marketing strategies from the Wharton School of Management and a trained auditor for ISO norms and assessment projects. He has lectured to postgraduate students on administration and strategic planning and delivered seminars on petroleum and lubricants and the environment. He is a member of the Chamber of Lubricants in Argentina.

He is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

antonio.recca@menas.co.uk

Carlos María Regúnaga, vice president, Menas de Argentina

Carlos María Regúnaga was born in Buenos Aires in 1943 and received his law degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1967. He also attended postgraduate courses at the same university as well as at New York University and at Princeton University.

He has been in-house legal adviser and member of the board of directors of many corporations engaged in banking, oil and gas, petrochemicals, transportation, construction and electronics. He has also represented the Argentine electronics industry in negotiations within the different Latin American associations aimed at regional economic integration. He held the vice-presidency of the Asociación Latinoamericana de la Industria Eléctrica y Electrónica.

He is also vice president of the VT Argentina genetics company, government relations consultant to American Express Argentina, consultant and former consultant, respectively, to the law firms of Dedeu-Ferrario, and Arslanian, Beraldi, Kaminker & Asociados.

In addition to his commercial activities, he is:

- vice president of the Fundación Gobierno y Sociedad, which brings together government, business, and academia to promote 'second generation reforms'.

- director of the Buenos Aires office of the Washington based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) independent, non-partisan, think-tank; and

- President of the Club del Progreso which is Argentina's oldest existing social and cultural club.

Carlos has also been in public office as presidential adviser and as adviser in chief to the Secretary of Commerce; is a former professor of constitutional law at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and of integration law at the Universidad de Belgrano and at the Lutheran University of Brazil, in Porto Alegre.

He is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

carlos.regunaga@menas.co.uk

Rodolfo Agustín Lira, director, Menas de Argentina

Rodolfo Lira – who received his law degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and attended postgraduate courses on constitutional law there and in the US, Europe and Brazil – is a leading commercial, governmental and academic lawyer

In public office Rodolfo has been an adviser and legal consultant to the secretary of Promoción del Crecimiento of Argentina's presidency; adviser to the secretary of foreign trade of the Ministry of the Economy; and the secretary on regional and international economic relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is currently a nominated judge-arbitrator for the application of the Brasilia Protocol for dispute resolutions in Mercosur.

He has been a legal adviser to Ferrocarriles Argentinos and chief counsel of Gas del Estado. He is president of the VT Argentina genetics company, and government relations consultant to companies such as American Express Argentina and DIRECTV Latin America.

He practised law within the Estudio Entelman and was founder and partner of the law firm Estudio Lira y Asociados as well as legal adviser for Argentina of the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

He is fluent in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Italian.

rodolfo.lira@menas.co.uk

Dr Charles Gurdon, director

Charles Gurdon joined Menas Services Ltd in 1980 as a senior researcher on international border disputes and other arbitration cases. In 1988, when the company diversified into consultancy work for corporate clients and newsletter publishing, Charles helped found the Menas Associates subsidiary and became its managing director. Since then he has run the company's consultancy portfolio and publication stable, and oversaw the restructuring of the Menas group which saw Menas Associates become the group's parent company.

Charles holds a B.A. (Hons.) Economics & Geography, M.Sc. (with distinction) and Ph.D. from the University of London's School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) where he specialised in the Middle East and Africa.

He is also the author of two books and numerous reports on Sudan and, before time constraints made it impossible, he was a regular commentator on radio and an occasional one on TV.

charles.gurdon@menas.co.uk

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