BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
Crossrail International (CI) is delighted to welcome Felipe Castro Arenas as Country Director for Colombia. Based in Bogotá, Felipe will be responsible for the management of CI’s in-country commissions and the creation of new business opportunities throughout Colombia, as well as the Latin American region.
Felipe joins CI from the British Embassy Colombia in Bogotá where he spent five years as Infrastructure Adviser for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s UK-Colombia Prosperity Programme to support economic development, unlock economic opportunities, and drive growth in Colombia’s regions. Felipe was responsible for delivering the programme’s objectives around rail and urban development in Colombia, managing agreements with development banks, implementing partners, and leading the adaptation and adoption of UK tools for quality infrastructure development, including BIM (Building Information Modelling), HM Treasury’s Five Case Model (for Business Cases), and the Infrastructure and Project Authority’s (IPA’s) Project Routemap for complex, major projects.
Felipe has 20 years of experience in the engineering and construction industries, with recent focus on the development of Colombia’s road and rail infrastructure. Since the passing of Law 1508 in 2012, Colombia’s first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) law, Felipe has specialised in the technical, financial and legal assessment of infrastructure projects for attracting private investment.
“We are delighted to welcome Felipe to our team,” said Paul Dyson, CI’s Chief Executive Officer. “His specialist engineering, procurement and construction skills combined with his in-depth knowledge of Colombia’s infrastructure needs will play a key role in expanding our strategic advisory services proposition throughout the region.”
“I am really honoured to be joining Crossrail International’s team,” said Felipe. “I look forward to helping Colombia benefit from CI’s state-of-the-art expertise, and in particular to playing a key role in the reactivation of my country’s rail sector.”
Felipe holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the Julio Garavito School of Engineering (Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería ‘Julio Garavito’) in Bogotá and an MSc in Construction Management and Engineering from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
