OLBIOS CORRESPONDENT COSTA RICA & PERU

Maria del Mar Vélez was born in Medellin, Colombia, and grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica. She received a BA Economics in Economics from New York University and minors in Business Studies and French. During her undergraduate studies, she worked at the Costa Rican Mission to the United Nations and as well as in Peruvian Development Group, where she focused on the acquisition of a microfinance company in Puno, Peru. She then worked at J.P. Morgan in Miami and New York For almost 6 years and held positions in the Latin America PB team and in the Alternative Investment team. She then moved to Lima, Perú where she founded Crack The Code, a Computer Science and Coding school for kids. Crack The Code hopes to empower future Latin American generations with the tools they will need to succeed: they need to learn how to create technology. The firm has over 60 students after three months of operations and is developing its social arm through scholarships and teacher trainings.