Crista, a Voice in the Time of Crisis

She is a woman of 28 who works, teaches and helps in the family foundation to help AIDS victims. Crista Kepfer, a Guatemalan graduate of the Master in Public Management (MPM) at SDA Bocconi, does not turn her back on intense work – considering that for a year she was also the spokesperson for the President of Guatemala – and she is always driven by the conviction that power can help the general public.

Crista graduated university with a Biology degree but soon understood that she needed to follow a different path. "I liked science but not its professional opportunities, and I understood that it was more important for me to cultivate relationships with people." So she enrolled in a Master in International Relations and also began to collaborate with the editorial staff of the Guatemalan daily newspaper Prensa Libre.

"I liked writing and politics, so it was a perfect combination. In some ways, that experience was my master 'in reality' – where I met lots of places and people and saw the real poverty that plagues our country," says Crista.

After the Master, Crista worked full-time in publishing for a year, where the choice of dedicating herself to the public sector came of age. "I understood that concrete things could be done to improve the public sector, and a public election candidate told me about his Master in Public Management at Harvard," Crista says. "I chose to study in Europe because I wanted to learn about a different viewpoint than the America's, since the USA already influences our country a great deal. And I chose Bocconi because I liked Italy and the MPM has a great curriculum with a truly international group of students."

The year in Milan was intense but pleasant. "It was one of the best years. The program was very well designed and the true asset was a class group made up of students from all over the world where we exchanged different ideas and points of view."

In September 2005 at the end of the program, she was offered an internship at the Geneva United Nations Office for Project Services, through the MPM. "It was an experience that convinced me that I wanted to work in the public sector – but also that it would be better to do so in my own country, to have a greater impact."

So she went back to Guatemala and began work as a Junior Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, working on projects connected to World Bank loans and the Intra-American Development Bank, including the negotiation of a 40 million dollar loan for the construction of hospitals.

"The year after," Crista continues, "I received a very interesting call. One of my colleagues in publishing was vice president of the Press Office of the President and told me that the position as spokesperson had opened up. They told me that public employees are like soldiers who must obey and so I accepted."

In the hallways of power, Crista spent an intense year at President Óscar Berger's side. After only a few days three members of the congress of El Salvador were killed in Guatemala and a diplomatic crisis broke out. Crista was immediately called upon to put her crisis management skills into practice. Other difficult moments followed, from the torrential rains that hit that year to strikes.

"It's hard to convince the papers and the opinion leaders that you're telling the truth," Crista explains. "But the important thing is to always be sincere in every relationship. And it really was an incredible year. Taking part in the cabinet meetings provided me with a fascinating behind-the-scenes look on the mechanisms of government. And there were many wonderful moments, from international meetings hosted in Guatemala to state visits, like the one with President Bush."

In January 2008 her mandate with the President was up and soon after Crista had a job interview with the Guatemala City branch of Citibank, as well as another interview for a different government appointment on that same day. Destiny would have it that the former interview was postponed and Citibank wanted an immediate answer, so Crista moved to the private sector. She began work as Public Affairs Officer, following the communication office but also acting as manager of projects, education and sustainable development promoted by Citi Foundation.

"I seem to be attracted to crises! I was entering a world that was new to me, the financial world, and after a few months everything collapsed," jokes Crista. "In any case I like it, even if it's very different. When you're in government you have to say everything, while in company communication the less the better."

But her commitments don't end there. Crista has been teaching Journalism in university for the past month and has also begun to help in the foundation her family created 16 years ago. She sits on the board of the Fundación Fernando Iturbide, founded with the legacy of one of her uncles to help AIDS victims. "And even here I have been able to put the teachings from the MPM to use, helping to draft the foundation's strategic plan for the next five years."