Jessica L. Bedoya is the founding partner of LARA Fund, a private equity investment firm focused on buy-out and growth opportunities across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to LARA, Bedoya served as the chief strategy officer and chief of staff at the Inter-American Development Bank from 2020 to 2022, where she was the primary advisor to the president and chairman of the board on institutional strategy, investment policy, and operations. She oversaw nearly 3,000 staff, managed a $60 million administrative budget, and designed investment strategies across twenty-six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. She guided efforts to improve portfolio management and operational performance, increase cost efficiencies, streamline due diligence processes, and mobilize more private capital investment through the IDB’s private sector entity, IDB Invest.
Her experience in international and development finance includes serving as managing director for the Western Hemisphere and senior advisor to the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Bedoya worked closely with senior U.S. and foreign government officials, coordinated with domestic and multilateral development finance institutions and expanded her network of private sector partners. Bedoya built a $1 billion program in Colombia that leveraged sovereign debt and private capital.
Bedoya’s fifteen-year track record in the U.S. government also includes her role as deputy senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the White House National Security Council (NSC) from 2018-2020, where she created and directed U.S. policy and economic priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a regional expert she advised the president and national security advisor and led execution of América Crece (Growth in the Americas), which catalyzed private sector investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to her time at the NSC, Bedoya served at the Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informing, advancing, and implementing U.S. foreign policies across the Western Hemisphere. Additionally, she worked at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia and has worked in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Eastern Caribbean.
Bedoya holds a bachelor of arts in international politics and international economics from George Washington University, a master of arts in world politics from Catholic University of America, a certificate in private equity and venture capital from the Harvard Business School. She studied political science at the Sorbonne in Paris. She speaks English, Spanish and French.
Bedoya was an event speaker at the Dialogue.
