Martin Tobal is the Director of the Macrofinancial Risk Analysis Directorate at Banco de México, responsible for preparing analytical materials for the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee Meetings and Financial Stability Report. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), as well as an MA and BA, both with honors, from the University of Valencia, Spain, and a BA with honors from the University of Nantes, France.Previously, he served as Manager of the Real Sector Research Analysis Unit at Banco de México, advisor to the central bank’s chief economist, senior economist in the International Affairs Unit, and Deputy Manager of the Macroeconomics Research Department at the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA). His research focuses on international macrofinance, international trade, and banking. His work addresses topics such as the impact of service offshoring on wages, welfare implications of intra-industry trade, banking competition, currency mismatches and financial stability, and the influence of capital flows on monetary policymaking in emerging economies.

Martin Castellano joined the IIF as a Senior Economist in June 2011 after more than a decade at the Central Bank of Argentina delivering applied macroeconomic research. At the Central Bank he held a number of key senior positions, including the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Deputy Head of Economic Research and Executive Counselor to the Governor between 1999 and 2010. Mr. Castellano has actively taken part in international central bank gatherings delivering presentations on macroeconomic issues to a variety of audiences.Previously, as a GFOA Cecil Partee Fellow and Management Fellow, he advised several local governments in the United States on public finance and economic policy. In addition, he carried out macroeconomic research at several consultant firms in Buenos Aires and he served as professor of macroeconomic theory and applied analysis at a number of universities in Argentina.

María Paola is Head of Frontier LatAm Research, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean. She was previously Principal Economist at BBVA Research, where she was responsible for coverage of Colombia and Panama, and focused on developing macro programming models to aid in economic forecasting. María Paola has also worked at Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia) as an Economist in the Macroeconomic Modeling Department. She has taught several courses in International Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics in Colombia.