She recently served in the US government from June 2011 to September 2017 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), responsible for the legal oversight of the bank’s international activities, including cross-border financing transactions in the billions of dollars that involved various industry sectors (including energy, telecommunications and transportation), as well as the financing of foreign governmental and private entities.
During her time at the bank, she was a member of the senior management team navigating the bank through two congressional reauthorizations and a lapse in financing authority. She played a key role in the bank’s relationship with Congress, the White House, Treasury, the State Department and other federal agencies, and worked on a variety of presidential initiatives, including climate change, the tilt to Asia and the US-China relationship, the new Cuba policy and the opening of Burma.
Manana also concurrently served as Special Advisor for Cuba Policy in the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President of the US at the end of the Obama Administration. Working with the Departments of Treasury, State and Commerce, she advised on the implementation of the administration’s new Cuba policy.
Prior to joining EXIM, Manana served as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Legal and Strategic Affairs at The Nielsen Company, a leading global information and data services company. She led a diverse team, composed of legal, finance and client services staff, with the aim of expanding the strategic relationships of the company with its most important media and high tech clients.
Prior to Nielsen, Manana practiced law at two leading international law firms in New York and Paris, developing an international corporate practice advising US and foreign clients in complex cross-border financial transactions.
She has served on numerous boards and in public service positions, including on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Advisory Council and various boards and commissions of the City of New York in the Bloomberg Administration.
Fluent in English, French and Spanish, Manana was born in Havana, Cuba, and is a US citizen.
