When the global pandemic hit the US last year, many businesses had to stop or reduce their operations dramatically. For our group of companies, all of them in the food industry in Houston, the COVID crisis brought new opportunities that came together with many challenges. In this talk, I will discuss a very atypical year, the opportunities we encountered, and how we responded to them in two very different industries: our sugar packaging plant (Cadeco Industries) and our distillery (Gulf Coast Distillers), which is the largest whiskey distillery in Texas.
María holds an BS in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia, 1997), and an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston (2004). She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a member of Alpha Pi Mu, IE Honors society.
She worked in Colombia in General Motors and the telecommunications industry before moving to the US in 2000. She joined the Aldecoa group of companies upon graduation from her Masters. She managed Cadeco’s coffee operations until 2014, and then led the installation of Cadeco’s sugar packaging plant in 2014, and that of Gulf Coast Distillers, that began operations in 2015. Maria also worked as an Adjunt Faculty Instructor for UH-College of Technology in 2013-2014. She is now the VP of operations for the Aldecoa group of companies.