Hector Marquez Solis is currently Head of the Government Purchasing Unit of the Mexican Ministry of Economy. He is responsible for the development of the methodology of local content by the SE and for the design of policies to promote the value chains derived from energy reform.

He served as the Mexican Ministry’s Trade Representative in USA, a position that enabled him to participate in the organisation of the teams working in the negotiation with the U.S government, Congress and the private sector on the solution of all the investment and trade issues that the Mexican and American companies were facing. He was also involved in the design and implementation of innovative trade promotion initiatives that lead to build a positive environment for the bilateral relation in the XXI century.

In the Ministry of Economy, he served as Head of Trade Agreements from 1990 to 2002, initially as a member of the negotiating team of NAFTA  and  then  later in charge of its implementation,  coordinating with the different areas of the public and private sectors.

In the private sector, he worked as an Associate Economist in the firm Wasserman & Associates, LLP, in Washington, DC, a position that allowed him to identify business opportunities for different sectors in key countries.

He holds a B.A in economics from the Independent University of Nuevo Leon and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in the USA.  In the academic environment, he has been a full time lecturer at the Independent University of Nuevo Leon and has participated as a speaker at national and international forums on topics related to economics and international trade.

Natalie Stirling-Sanders is ExxonMobil’s Global Manager of Local Content, Supplier Diversity and Sustainable Procurement.  Prior positions with ExxonMobil include Area Procurement Manager, Regulatory Advisor, Industrial Benefits Manager and Training & Development Manager.  Working in the oil and gas industry in eastern Canada from 1998 until early 2013, and now in the global ExxonMobil organization, she has been involved in initiatives focused on developing capacity in local communities to respond to the opportunities offered by oil and gas development, with a particular focus on initiatives that support a globally competitive, and therefore sustainable, oil and gas industry presence.  Prior to work in the oil and gas sector, she was active in the Canadian federal political arena having held senior level federal campaign management roles.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, Natalie has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and an Executive MBA.  She has lived and worked in many parts of Canada and spent a year teaching English as a Second Language in Japan.

In Canada, she sat on a variety of oil and gas industry committees, served as Second Vice-President of a federal political party, served as Vice-Chair of the Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association, and was a founding member and board member of “Techsploration”, an organization which aims to increase the participation of women in trades, technology and science careers.

She is currently co-chair of the IPIECA Local Content Task Force and member of the Supply Chain Task Force.  IPIECA is the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues.  She is also a board member of WEConnect International, an organization that connects women-owned businesses with global value chains.

Tony Payan, Ph.D., is the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and director of the Mexico Center at the Baker Institute. He is also an adjunct associate professor at Rice University and a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Payan’s research focuses primarily on border studies, particularly the U.S.-Mexico border. His work theorizes on various topics regarding international borders, including border governance, immigration, border security, organized crime and the manifestation of U.S. foreign policy at its borders. Payan has authored two books: “Cops, Soldiers and Diplomats: Understanding Agency Behavior in the War on Drugs” and “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration and Homeland Security.” He has also co-edited five volumes: “Gobernabilidad e Ingobernabilidad en la Región Paso del Norte,” “Human Rights Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gendered Violence and Insecurity,” “De Soldaderas a Activistas: La mujer chihuahuense en los albores del Siglo XXI,” “A War that Can’t Be Won: Binational Perspectives on the War on Drugs,” and “Undecided Nation: Political Gridlock and the Immigration Crisis.” He is currently working on a manuscript titled “The Bird’s Eye View: An Elite Analysis of Mexico’s 2006-2012 Security Strategy” and the second edition of his book “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars.” He has written numerous book chapters and academic articles and attended dozens of conferences and workshops in the United States, Mexico, Canada and other countries. Payan has served on several boards, including the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority in El Paso, Texas, and the Plan Estratégico de Juárez in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He is a member of the Greater Houston Partnership's Immigration Task Force and Mexico Energy Task Force. He also served as president of the Association of Borderlands Studies in 2009-2010. Payan earned his B.A. in philosophy and classical languages from the University of Dallas and his MBA from the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management. He received his doctorate degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 2001.

Marco Cota-Valdivia is the Director General of Exploration and Extraction of Hydrocarbons at Mexico's Secretariat of Energy. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the Mexican Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM) and a M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Manchester.

Upon the completion of his graduate studies, he joined the Undersecretariat of Hydrocarbons as an advisor focused on the analysis of the oil and gas industry. In the National Hydrocarbons Commission he served as Director for Statistics and Analysis where, among other projects, he developed a quantitative methodology to determine a field’s suitability for the implementation of enhanced oil recovery techniques. At the beginning of 2014, he was invited back to the Undersecretariat of Hydrocarbons where he actively contributed to the design and development of the energy reform, its secondary legislation, contracts and regulations. As the Director General of Exploration and Extraction of Hydrocarbons at the Secretariat of Energy, he leads the proposition of areas for their offering in tenders, the determination of local content requirements for contracts, and other technical assessments for contract related matters.