The greatest strength of ESA Consultores lies in its human resources. At present we have 52 permanent employees, including senior consultants, junior consultants, technicians, and administrative, logistical and accounting support staff.

ESA's senior consultants work exclusively for the firm. They are mostly bilingual in English and Spanish, have studied at well-known educational centers in America or Europe, and possess wide international experience in their areas of specialization. The team of senior consultants includes: economists, civil, industrial, mechanical, agronomic and environmental engineers, statisticians, biologists, sociologists, medical doctors, business administrators, urban planners and programmers.

We also have a wide range of associate consultants to complement our project teams, which allows us to offer services of high methodological and technical quality in a wide range of specialty areas, and to offer practical and multidisciplinary solutions in accordance with our clients' needs.

Manager / Senior Consultant Economist Helmis Cárdenas is an economist with a Masters degree in economic policy from the University of Illinois, U.S.A., and a Masters degree in economics and development planning from the Central American Graduate Program in Economics (POSCAE) at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. He is an expert in the financial and economic analysis of social and environmental projects, in financial and administrative aspects of the design and transformation of development projects, and in macroeconomic and sector analysis. As a senior consultant with ESA, he has directed the design of trust funds for the administration of investment funds, and of foundations to oversee forestry and environmental projects. He was the main author of the first national survey of Honduran micro enterprises, and has directed sector studies for the analysis of the national health accounts and national education accounts in Honduras. He has also participated in the assessment of poor neighborhoods' improvement schemes and in projects for municipal development, studies of willingness to pay, and evaluations of the impact of social investment funds in several Central American countries. Before working with ESA Consultores, he was the Manager of the Honduras-Canada Environment Fund, which finances environmental projects. His native language is Spanish, and he has a good command of both English and French.

Company President / Social Studies Area Coordinator Rafael del Cid is a sociologist and demographer, with a Phd. from the University of Texas in Austin. He is an expert in social investigation, and has specialized knowledge in the design, execution and analysis of field investigations, both quantitative (socioeconomic surveys) and qualitative (in-depth surveys, focus and diagnostic groups, and participatory evaluations). Among his areas of expertise are: the informal sector and micro enterprise, poverty, the labor market, education, social participation, municipal strengthening, gender, ethnic groups, and decentralization. He is the author of academic studies on: the labor market, gender, decentralization, environmental management and agricultural development. Before working with ESA Consultores, he was a Program Officer for the UNDP in Honduras. His native language is Spanish, and he has a good command of English.

Survey Division Manager Florencia Rodríguez is a civil engineer, trained at the National Autonomous University of Honduras, and specialized in the design and supervision of household surveys, and in the qualitative and participatory assessment and markets studies for social organizations. Over the last decade, she has managed over 20 major household surveys censuses in six different countries in Central and South America, including: contingent valuation studies (willingness to pay) for water and sewer services, social assessments of low income neighborhoods improvement programs, Knowledge of Attitudes and Practices (KAP) studies in the health sector, agrarian studies and censuses to identify the beneficiaries of cash transfer programs. She has also developed marketing studies for social products, such as solar energy systems, health services, and programs to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her native language is Spanish, and she has a good command of English.

Environmental Area Coordinator Carla Rivera is a biologist, with a PhD. in natural resources and environment from the University of Santiago, Spain, and a Masters degree in oceanography and limnology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A. She is an expert in the environmental impact appraisals (EIA), and in the management of wildlife and natural resources. Her experience in EIAs includes the following: Environmental Viability of the San Juan 60 Dam, Pre-feasibility Study of the Los Llanitos Hydroelectric Project, Evaluation of the Environmental and Social Impact for the construction of the sewer system of the city of Puerto Cortés, Honduras, and the oceanographic, environmental and faunal (avifauna) aspects of the EIA for the "Club Marbella" Tourist Complex planned in Tela, Honduras. She has wide experience in the integrated management of natural resources, in environmental diagnosing of water resources, and in speedy evaluations of wildlife refuges. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.

Agricultural Technical Assistance Area Coordinator Gersan Lainez has a Masters Degree in Farming and Livestock Sciences and in Renewable Resources Sciences, with a Specialty in Production Systems of Tropical Livestock from the Tropical Agronomy Center for Investigation and Teaching (CATIE) of Costa Rica, a B.S. in zootechnics from the University of Vermont, U.S.A.. His undergraduate degree is in agromomy, from the Pan-American Agricultural School (EAP), El Zamorano, Honduras. He has also received training at CIAT, COLOMBIA. He is an expert in the organization of small farmer groups. He has coordinated and supervised large technical assistance projects with hillside farmers which promote the adoption of sustainable technologies, and the rational use of natural resources, to generate increased incomes and welfare in projects such as: The Forestry and Farming Project of the Management Program of Renewable Natural Resources of the Cajón Reservoir (COHDEFOR/ IDB) and the Fund for Hillside Producers of the Program for the Administration of Rural Areas (Honduras-World Bank). He has wide experience in research in livestock management and agricultural extension for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Honduras. His native language is Spanish, and he has a good command of English.

Statistical Analysis Area Coordinator Fidel Ordoñez is a mathematician, with a Masters degree in Statistics from the University of Chile and a Masters degree in Population and Demographics from the National Autonomous University of Honduras. He is an expert in sample design, and in the statistical and econometric analysis of socioeconomic surveys. He has designed and analyzed a large number of household, workplace and institutional surveys and censuses in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and Venezuela. These surveys have covered such themes as: micro enterprises, water and sanitation, impact evaluations for social and health projects, and socioeconomic evaluations for social development projects in low-income neighborhoods. He has designed the samples for two national epidemiological and family health surveys, and for the 1999 National Survey of Income and Expenditures in Honduras, including the calculation of selection probabilities and expansion factors. His native language is Spanish, and he has a good command of English.

Senior Consultant Economist Pedro Serrano has a degree in economics from the National Autonomous University of Honduras, and more than 20 years of professional experience. He is an outstanding expert in financial, economic, and tariff analysis of the water and sanitization systems, in cost-benefit analysis, and in financial aspects of municipal development. He has carried out tariff studies and financial modeling assignments for dozens of water and sanitation service providers. He has conducted economic and financial evaluations of projects in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and the Dominican Republic using SIMOP and other advanced computer models. His other recent assignments include preparation of design of the Water and Sanitation component of the national reconstruction plan in Honduras, following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and the economic and financial due diligence study for IDB support to the private concessionaire operating the San Pedro Sula water system in Honduras.

Senior Consultant Economist Marco Moncada has completed the doctoral program in economics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, U.S.A, concentrating on economic development, labor and international economics. He also has degrees in mechanical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Honduras and the University of Iowa, U.S.A.), and a qualification in project evaluation from the Catholic University of Chile. His work in recent years has been concentrated in the area of poverty reduction programs in the Central American region. He has participated in the design of monitoring systems for poverty indicators, in the identification of potential projects for combating poverty in Central America, and in consultancies that monitored and evaluated program and project performances. He has undertaken cost-efficiency studies in the health, education, and water and sanitation sectors for the public sector in four countries of the Central American region. As part of the ESA Consultores team, he has participated in the preparation of the Honduras poverty reduction strategy. He is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Senior Consultant - Municipal Development and Public Services Max Velásquez holds a Masters degree in Economics and Urban Development Planning from the University of London, United Kingdom. He is an expert in the modernization and privatization of public services, in the strengthening of the national public administration and in municipal development. He has been an institutional consultant on municipal water and sanitation projects, on the electricity sector, on housing in low income neighborhoods, and on local economic development. He has prepared strategies for integrated development and for environmental management. He participated in the teams that developed strategies for the modernization of the water and sanitation sector for the IDB in Honduras and in the Dominican Republic. He also has wide experience in the preparation of urban development and human settlement plans. At present, he is in charge of the Technical Unit of the Honduran Municipal Development Trust Fund; which supports the Municipalities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa in executing integrated urban development projects with loan funding from the International Development Bank (IDB). He is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Senior Consultant - HEALTH José Lara is a physician with a Masters in Epidemiology from CIES-UNAN de Managua, Nicaragua, Masters in Occupational Hygiene and studies in Medical Statistics of the Newcastle University in England, studies in Project Execution and Evaluation at PROCOMIN, UNAN in Managua, Nicaragua. He is currently studying the Doctorate in Education at the Universidad Pedagógica ¨Francisco Morazán in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Dr. Lara is well acquainted with the use of Etnograph which is used in the analysis of qualitative information. Dr. Lara is well experienced in development, project execution and evaluation, communitary participation, evaluation, organization and design of information systems as well as investigations, sample and data base design, expert in organization and analysis of surveys and evaluations, gender and development. He has ample experience in training gained as a teacher at universities. Besides Spanish, his mother tounge, he speaks English, French, Russian and Basic Italian and Portuguese.

Senior Consultant in Surveys Sonia López has a first degree in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Honduras. She is an expert in the management and quality control of large-scale surveys and censuses, in the coding, statistical processing, and cleaning of data, and in conducting focus groups. She has seven years of international experience in Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, including household surveys and censuses, baseline studies and specialized studies in health, water and sanitation, agriculture and rural economy, small and micro enterprises, market studies and gender analysis. Before working at ESA Consultores, she was worked on consumer protection programs at the Honduran Secretariat of Economy and Trade. Her native language is Spanish, and she has a good command of English.