US consulting firm Conexig launches in Colombia

US-headquartered consulting firm Conexig has opened an office in Colombia, lifting its on the ground presence in Latin America to six countries.

Conexig launched earlier this year, when a group of senior advisors across the Americas and Spain joined forces to establish the Miami-based consultancy. Conexig helps its clients with services including management consulting, contract and project management, claims and dispute resolution, governance, risk and compliance, digital and learning and development. 

Having built up a team in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, Conexig has now also established a stronghold in Colombia, South America’s fourth-largest country after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. 

“Conexig is delighted to have established a presence in that highly strategic place at this time,” said Felipe Gutiérrez, managing partner of Conexig. Similar to its global focus, the local operation will focus predominantly on clients in the infrastructure, engineering and construction sectors.

Co-founder Gutiérrez previously was a Senior Vice President at US consulting firm J.S. Held and the regional head of LATAM at HKA (over a five year period he built the firm’s LATAM practice from scratch to around 50 professionals).

Before that, Brazilian-origin Gutiérrez was a partner at Big Four firm KPMG in São Paulo. 

Conexig Colombia is led by country director Simón Guzmán, who brings over 20 years’ experience as an auditor and forensic investigator to the firm. He joined from Deloitte, where he led the firm’s Forensics and Disputes practice for Colombia and Peru. Before that, Guzmán worked for BDO and over a decade for the government of Colombia.

He has conducted several investigations with national impact, in the prevention, detection and management of crisis related to fraud and corruption risks and competences in fraud data analytics and data visualization. 

Under his reins, the local Bogotá based team has come off to a flying start in the past weeks, with the team now made up of ten professionals with extensive experience in forensic technologies, competition conflicts and investment banking areas, among others.

The new recruits include partner Raquel Céspedes, appointed a partner and compliance & ethics director. She specializes in commercial law with a focus on ethics, compliance issues and financial crime, and has previously led projects for the design and implementation of the ethics and compliance systems for multinational companies with operations in Colombia and abroad.