Mining for Prosperity with Local Leadership

Prosperity is like a magnet. It draws people; attracts them. That's what Carlos Fernandez is discovering. He is the CEO of the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI). He finds that when CGSGI helps a new business grow in Latin America , many other groups are attracted to it, creating several large - and largely unintended - ripples of prosperity. Almost two years have passed since this new, market-driven charitable organization was created with the strong financial backing of several mining entrepreneurs, led by Mr. Frank Giustra. Gold Editor interviewed Mr. Fernandez to get an update on how their initiatives are working and an idea of what success looks like - his answers surprised us.

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GoldEditor.com Interview with Carlos H. Fernandez Mazzi
CEO of the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI) at the Clinton Foundation

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime, goes the old saying. As CEO for the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, or CGSGI, Carlos H. Fernandez Mazzi has been doing this and more for this market- driven charitable foundation.

GoldEditor.com caught up with Fernandez in New York recently for an update on some recent CGSI business, job creation and sustainability initiatives.

An hour-long Q&A came up with some interesting answers, not all of which were expected.

GoldEditor: Carlos, before we talk about you are doing, tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to be the CEO here.

Carlos H. Fernandez Mazzi: My background is in engineering and then I have an MBA in strategy and finance. I worked in banking in Latin America , and was exposed to the Business Council for Sustainable Development before the Rio Summit, and I developed an interest in this area.

So after banking I went into mining and I led the local efforts in Bolivia in developing this very large mining project, the largest foreign investment in the country, which happened to be the poorest district . I had hands-on experience in dealing with our investors, our financiers, bankers, and the central, local and provincial governments, the local communities, the Catholic Church, I mean, everybody who was involved in, or had a say in this project.

And we effectively maneuvered through different challenges. I created true partnerships among the company, the communities, other NGO’s and all levels of government.