Francisco Mandiola holds a BSFS degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, as well as political studies at the University of Essex. He also has a Master of Business Administration from the University of California. He is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, as well as proficient in French.
Following university, Francisco began his career at a lobbying firm in Washington, DC, where he worked for one year, before entering the banking world as an officer in charge of Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay for Lloyds Bank, Plc.
On his return to Chile in the early 1990s, Francisco worked at the Chilean Stock Exchange for Banedwards (now Banco de Chile) and oversaw technological innovations to trade stocks and other financial instruments across the country. As a result, he was hired by El Mercurio, the oldest running Spanish-language newspaper in the world, to develop and commercialise its new web offering (www.emol.com).
Since then he has worked at a series of executive roles in regional companies and been Managing Director for SKY TV, DIRECTV, Turner/TimeWarner Chile and the Chilean State Mint and Printing Company. In this last role, Francisco was in charge of changing the company culture, re-building and modernising the banknote plant and subsequently promoting CMCh’s availability as the best commercial alternative for the Caribeean and Latin American security market. Also during his tenure at CMCh, he was influential in promoting the use of tax stamps on cigarettes, which resulted in the eventual adoption of such a system by Chile’s Tax Authority in 2019.
Francisco serves as a board member for Chilean companies and is also head of FMA, a strategic transformation advisory firm that helps both private companies and government entities in their adaptation to the latest digital and business environments. Due to his past experience, Francisco is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences or as an industry expert on transformation and other issues regionally. He is a registered consultant for ITSA (International Tax Stamp Association) and Reconnaissance International.
