Team

Washington, D.C.:

Monique Fridell
Executive Director

Renata Vasconcellos
Director for Policy
+1.202.463.5628
rvasconcellos@uschamber.com

Luciana Rocha-Goldman
Associate–Export Green
+1.202.463.5496
lrochagoldman@uschamber.com

Reeve Wolford 
Senior Advisor
+1.202.525.9607
rwolford@brazilcouncil.org

Brazil Team:

Steven Bipes
Senior Advisor
+55.21.9855.1147
sbipes@brazilcouncil.org

Rafael Lourenco
Manager, Business Development
+55.21.3213.9215
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
rlourenco@brazilcouncil.org

Team Biographies:

Monique Fridell is executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Brazil-U.S. Business Council (BUSBC). She is responsible for developing, promoting, and overseeing programs and policy related to advancing trade and investment between the United States and Brazil. Before joining BUSBC, Fridell served as supervisory senior investment officer at the U.S. Department of Energy. There, she led multidisciplinary teams in structuring innovative alternative energy project finance transactions in the wind, energy efficiency, solar thermal, nuclear, and advanced fossil sectors. Earlier, Fridell spent nine years working with the Latin American private equity asset class both in Brazil as well as at the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC). Prior to joining IIC, Fridell was a vice president & director at ABN AMRO North America. In this position, she originated and executed a variety of debt capital markets transactions for U.S. multinational corporate clients. Fridell began her career in the Developing Markets Group at Manufacturers Hanover Trust, a New York money-center predecessor bank of JP Morgan Chase. She holds an M.B.A and a B.A. from The American University in Washington, D.C.  She is Brazilian-American and is fluent in Portuguese, French and Spanish. She lives in Bethesda, MD.

Renata B. Vasconcellos is director of policy at the Brazil-U.S. Business Council. She is in charge of identifying, researching, analyzing and summarizing policy issues affecting U.S. business both in Brazil and the United States. Renata, an attorney admitted to practice law in Brazil and in the United States (N.Y. and D.C.), worked in the international department of Ohio based law firm Porter Wright prior to joining BUSBC, where for 16 years she represented American, Brazilian and Latin American clients on a variety of trade issues, including antidumping, customs law and export controls. Renata holds a J.D. from the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro and a master’s degree in international business and trade law from the American University, in Washington D.C. Renata is also one of the Directors of the ABCI – Brazilian Scholars for International Trade, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington D.C.

Luciana Rocha-Goldman joined the Brazil-U.S. Business Council to support the Export Green initiative. She is responsible for implementing all programs and activities related to Export Green. She also develops and implements the project’s communications strategy, including newsletters and website. Prior to joining BUSBC she worked as a contracts specialist for a mid-size government contractor in the Washington, DC metro area. Luciana has a law degree from University of Uberaba in Brazil, and a LL.M. from the Washington College of Law at American University. She and her husband live in Arlington, VA.

Reeve Wolford is senior advisor at the Brazil-U.S. Business Council, representing the Council frequently in public speaking engagements and providing strategic guidance to many of the Council’s sectoral committees, including the Oil & Gas Working Group, Defense & Security Task Force, Retail & Consumer Products Working Group and Infrastructure Working Group. In addition, he is managing director for Latin America at Altrius Group LLC, a business advisory and government affairs consultancy that provides services in Washington, DC and various Latin American countries for clients in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Prior to his work at Altrius Group, Reeve served for eight years as Director of Marketing at the Brazil-U.S. Business Council.

Steven Bipes is the Brazil-U.S. Business Council’s chief representative in Brazil and the former BUSBC executive director. Before joining the council, Steven served as senior director of international policy for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) with prior experience in the telecom, manufacturing, and software industries, working extensively with U.S. and foreign government agencies to eliminate regulatory barriers to international trade. Mr. Bipes earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a certificate in executive nonprofit leadership from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

Rafael Lourenço is manager, business development for the Brazil-U.S. Business Council and the Council’s representative in Rio de Janeiro. He is responsible for developing activities for the Council’s member-companies in the areas of energy, oil & gas and infrastructure; as well as prospecting new members and managing the relationship with existing ones. Rafael is also in charge of developing and/or improving institutional relations with the key stakeholders in the Brazilian business and governmental spheres. Rafael has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Saint Cloud State University and a Master’s degree in Globalization, International Trade and Emerging Markets from the University of Barcelona. He is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish.