Driving Impact Through Strategic Investment | Global Investors' Symposium Mexico City 2025

Wealth Transfer and Investment Trends

• A generational wealth transfer between $80 trillion and $100 trillion is underway, with 66% of these assets expected to pass to women.
• Women investors demonstrate a distinct preference for impact investments in healthcare and environmental issues compared to men.
• Jean proposes shifting investment models toward "impact investing" that generates double-digit annual returns while maintaining 50% of students on full scholarships at her self-sufficient university (which operates with zero donations).

Ocean Conservation and Aquaculture Innovation

• Santomara's offshore farming model utilizes submersible geodesic sphere cages to farm species like Totomaba and red snapper in deep water, avoiding bottom atrophy.
• The company vertically integrated its operations over 15 years to develop its own hatchery and broodstock after external fingerling suppliers doubled prices.
• Red snapper (huachinango) development required a six-year investment period just to achieve survival past the 20-day mark.
• Regulatory permitting in Mexico is significantly faster than in the U.S.; however, collaboration with U.S. agencies recently enabled a NOAA permit for an offshore farm in Florida after a decade of effort.
• The farm creates 24/7 economic presence in designated "no-take zones," solving historical enforcement challenges for conservation areas.
• Future legacy projects include a Center for Applied Aquaculture Innovation focused on workforce development and a Center for Applied Dryland Water Studies for watershed restoration.

Educational Reform and Leadership Development

• The Dalia and Centro organizations address the "brain crossing" gap where traditional universities separate left-brain (analytical/financial) training from right-brain (creative) training.
• Research indicates 10 of the top 15 skills required for the next five years are "life skills" (e.g., empathy, negotiation, emotional intelligence), while failures in leadership roles typically stem from a lack of these skills rather than hard skills.
• Dalia focuses exclusively on "life skills" and AI adaptation, operating on the premise that hard skills are easily replaceable by technology, whereas attitude and emotional intelligence are not.
• The prevailing leadership paradigm is shifting from traditional "masculine" command-and-control styles to a more "feminine" leadership model characterized by empathy, intergenerational collaboration, and care.
• Barriers to female leadership are attributed to cultural conditioning and education rather than corporate bias, causing women to avoid high-stakes opportunities due to a lack of self-perceived capability.

Personal Legacies and Mentorship

• Jean cites her father and mentor Pedro Aspe as primary role models who influenced her transition from real estate to higher education and impact investing.
• Christy identifies her late husband, John, as her inspiration, crediting his advocacy for charter schools and voucher systems as a major driver of her work in environmental education and policy.
• The Center for Advancing the American Dream is currently filming 10,000 individuals (including many of Mexican descent) to document narratives where a single person's belief in an individual unlocked their potential.