Kristie Pellecchia Loiacono is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. She is the founder and partner of Pellecchia International, a boutique investment bank and advisory firm focused on the Americas. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in international finance, development, and capital markets across the public and private sectors.
From 2019 to 2020, Loiacono served as head of the Western Hemisphere at the US International Development Finance Corporation, where she advised the agency’s president and CEO and led policy and transactions for an $8.5 billion portfolio spanning thirty-nine countries. Earlier, she spent five years at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, building out its loan syndications platform and expanding the bank’s presence in Latin America, and a decade at BNP Paribas in capital markets roles across the Americas, including restructuring the bank’s balance sheet during the financial crisis.
She is a nonresident affiliate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and currently sits on the boards of Confrapar, Funda Hígado, and the North American Chile Chamber of Commerce. She has been recognized on Crain’s list of “Notable Women in Finance.”
Loiacono holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Lehigh University. She is fluent in Spanish and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.