Gerardo Portela

Executive Director

Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority (AFV)

As Chief Investment Officer of Puerto Rico and Senior Advisor to the Governor, Mr. Gerardo J. Portela Franco is in charge of optimizing all emblematic assets of the Government and revitalizing the investment environment in Puerto Rico.

In addition, Portela serves as both Executive Director for the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority (PRHFA) and President of the Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico (EDB). At the PRHFA, Portela leads efforts to promote the development of low-income housing and provides financing, subsidies and incentives so that citizens may acquire or lease a dignified home. Meanwhile, the EDB provides up to $1 million in financing to entrepreneurs in the manufacturing, commerce, tourism, agriculture, service and other sectors.

Portela Franco was previously appointed Executive Director and Chairman of the Board of the Financial Advisory Authority and Fiscal Agency of Puerto Rico by Governor Dr. Ricardo Rosselló on January 2017. For 20 months he helped create and build the new Authority, which now has approximately 80 employees. He also led the restructuring of the GDB and Cofina deal, certified 17 Fiscal Plans and 2 budgets under PROMESA. He also helped reengineering the government entity through reorganizations and consolidations and improve the publishing of financial information of Puerto Rico.

Before entering public service, Portela Franco had a distinguished career as an investment banker in Santander and UBS, specializing in the areas of public financing, project financing and corporate financing. Portela Franco holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration in the University of Virginia in which he received a grant from the Darden Foundation and a scholarship from the “Consortium for Graduate Study in Management”. In addition, he graduated with honors and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) with a concentration in Finance from the University of Puerto Rico.

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