The primary purpose of the TBI Community Advisory Board (CAB) is to assist with the development of the Trans-Border Institute (TBI) as an organization that maintains a strong binational community presence in the greater San Diego-Tijuana region. The Community Advisory Board will counsel and make recommendations concerning the strategic direction of TBI.

Alejandra Mier y Terán
Executive Director
Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce
2007-09

Elsa Saxod
Board Member
San Diego Water Authority
2008-10

José M. Larroque de La Cruz
Principal Partner
Baker & McKenzie
2009-2011

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Alejandra Mier y Terán
Executive Director
Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce

Alejandra Mier y Terán has been executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce since 1999. Prior to serving as executive director at the chamber, she worked as the marketing manager for San Diego Dialogue, a public policy center at the University of California , San Diego . Mrs. Mier y Terán grew up on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and received university educations at the University of San Diego and at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México in Mexico City where she studied economics. From working in the Mexican Economy Ministry, she gained first-hand knowledge and experience in international trade, and wrote a thesis developing a cost-benefit analysis to help minimize wait times at the San Ysidro port of entry.

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Elsa Saxod
Board Member
San Diego Water Authority

Elsa Saxod Saxod began her professional career as a Spanish instructor, first in a classroom and later for the Peace Corps. She went on to work for a Senate staff in Washington D.C. and for Fronteras de las Californias, a non-profit organization charged with identifying channels of communication between San Diego and Baja California. She was appointed by the Governor of California as Director of the Office of California/Mexico Affairs and served as Executive Director of the US/Mexico Border Progress Foundation (BPF). BPF was a borderwide, binational organization whose mission was to improve the environment along the US-Mexico border region through outreach and education. She also served as the Director of the City of San Diego’s of Binational Affairs. Since leaving the City of San Diego, Ms. Saxod returned to SAXOD Enterprises a firm she founded in 1980. The company specializes in helping clients working with Mexico from language training, to guiding private sector clients through government bureaucracies to helping develop partnerships to further business opportunities.

 

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José M. Larroque de La Cruz
Principal Partner
Baker & McKenzie

Jose Larroque de La Cruz's area of practice includes general corporate and business transactions with a focus on mergers and acquisition, fund structuring and real estate transactions involving retail, industrial, residential and resort development throughout Mexico and Latin America. He specializes in advising foreign and domestic investors on structuring cross-border transactions for the acquisition companies, joint ventures, and the development, and financing of real estate projects in Mexico and Latin America. Jose is the Coordinator of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group in Mexico and Latin America.Mr. Larroque obtained his law degree from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City in 1983, and his Masters in International Law from Columbia University in New York City in 1989.  He joined the firm in 1986 and became Principal Partner in 1995.