Alicia Castillo Holley is passionate about creating wealth. She is president of Ventures Latinas LLC, a premier site for the creation of wealth in Latin America. Since 1998, Ventures Latinas provides training, consulting, and coaching to individuals and organizations in the fields of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital. She has consulted, mentored or coached almost 500 young businesses or individuals who want to launch their ideas, and has trained over 4000 people in the fields of wealth creation, venture capital, entrepreneurship, innovation, and managing change.

She has also participated in several international groups to research and develop entrepreneurship, and has participated in various committees worldwide to improve life for others such as promoting sustainable agriculture, fostering  entrepreneurship education, commercializing innovations and biotechnology from developing countries, setting up business incubators, venture capital investments, and empowering single mothers or women who face abuse.  She enjoys participating in meetings ranging from product development, collaborative interdisciplinary groups, and board meetings.

She has been a guest speaker and professor in the US, Australia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada, and lead researcher for two 3-yrs long, million dollar projects. She has personally started 8 companies and one non-for-profit in Venezuela, Chile and the US, and has worked in the Americas, Europe, and Australia, in product development, commercializing innovations, or setting up projects, enterprises, or non-for profits.

Alicia grew up in a beautiful small town in Venezuela, where she became one of the youngest scientists in molecular biology in Latin America. At the age of 16 she was the youngest presenter of a graded paper at the Convención Nacional de Ingenieros Agrónomos. At 20 she was the youngest researcher presenting an authored paper at the Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Microscopia Electronica. Prior to graduating as an Agronomist Engineer, Alicia had already published 8 papers on molecular biology. She continued her scientific career pursuing a Masters of Science, graduating with honors.  She became one of the youngest scientists in molecular biology in Latin America.

She continued her scientific career pursuing a Master in Sciences where she graduated with honors. At 25 she started her first company: a landscaping venture, whilst joining Bayer-shell Plantagro where she led the new product development area. She self-funded a year of community activities before moving to the US to pursue an MBA at the best college for Entrepreneurship: Babson College.

In 1996, Alicia returned from the US to Latin America with a personal mission to promote entrepreneurship, driven by her passion about prosperity and her love for the region. Within 4 months, she launched Chilean First Center for Entrepreneurship at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez and within 3 years, Chilean First Seed Capital Fund. In 2002, she took Ventures Latinas headquarters to Houston, Texas, where she also invested in other new ventures. As of August 2005 she calls Perth, Western Australia, home.

Two extraordinary events greatly affected her life. As a young teenager, she fell off a horse and was in a coma for few days, facing a long recovery. She had to give up music, theater, ballet, and turned instead to literature and science, embracing life with incredible passion and deep spiritual reflection. In 1993, a seminar led her to take control of her life. Living off her investments, she took a self funded "sabbatical" year to work for her community, at the Opera House, and volunteering at a local Scouts Troops and women's shelter. At the end of that year, she lost all her savings to a bank crisis and decided to continue with her plans to do an MBA in the US, leaving her country with two young kids and four boxes. It was the beginning of an amazing journey that has taken her to all continents (except the Poles! I'm working on it though) and connect with people in very different cultures and languages. Just for the record, she holds degrees with honors on Engineering, a Master of Science from Universidad Central de Venezuela, an MBA from Babson College, MA; however she considers learning a perpetual work in progress, not an academic exercise..

Currently she lives in Perth, Australia, and travels extensively.

Her areas of expertise are:

1. Creating wealth. Understanding the flow of wealth and the inefficiencies of the capital system. Doing something about it. Identifying the unique opportunities and creating processes that are efficient and wealth generating.  Understanding and using the relationships between personal values, actions, and financial results.

2. Establishing real businesses and preventing wealth destruction. Understanding how to set up processes and policies, and how to distribute wealth amongst others. Developing a path to set up a company, grow it, and exit from it.

3. Designing reward systems that attract wealth and prosperity. Understanding other's needs to reinforce the creation of wealth and avoid wealth destruction. Connecting to the world's flow of prosperity and making sound financial plans.  

2. Moving beyond surviving to succeeding in new environments. Understanding how paradigms empower or limit your ability to get from goals to achievements. Overcoming the paralyzing effects of fear, frustration, and despair (you still get to feel them, and you move on with them until you are ready to let go). Loving the life you are living in order to live the life you love.