Pionero is a boutique strategic advisory and risk consultancy firm, providing specialist
services to corporate and non-government clients. We focus on the Latin American
region, with particular attention to the possibilities and pitfalls of links to
other emerging economies.

The company has been formed as a response to two new realities that we believe are
shaping the global business culture of the 21st century. The first is the rapid
growth of emerging markets, including Latin America, against a backdrop of economic
stagnation in more mature economies. This has created new sources of liquidity and
increased appetite for deals that look further afield in search of returns. But
barriers – of language, culture, geography, bureaucracy, understanding – are often
high.

The second is the increasing influence of politics in economic decision-making.
From the Jasmine Revolution to European sovereign debt, from natural disasters to
currency wars, geopolitical risk is now firmly back on the global agenda. The EIU’s
latest Global Business Barometer rates political risk the second-largest threat
to business in Latin America, behind economic and market risk. If its causes and
motivations can be understood better, and appropriate mitigation and management
strategies put in place, then business opportunities can be created.