Controversial Appointments in Strategic Areas Raise Questions on Experience: Treasury Connects with Banking Sector via Engineer Lacking Background

Original article: Tres casos en áreas estratégicas y cuestionamientos por experiencia: tras Zegers y Shea, Hacienda entrega nexo con la banca a ingeniera sin trayectoria en el sector

The government of José Antonio Kast is facing fresh criticism after it was revealed that the newly appointed «bridge» between the government and the banking sector lacks a background in the financial industry. The selection of Francisca Álamos, a 31-year-old commercial engineer, to lead the Office of Capital Markets at the Ministry of Finance, adds to two other appointments in strategic areas where experience seems to have been a secondary consideration.

Justice Minister Fernando Rabat has entrusted Trinidad Zegers Domínguez, who was sworn in as a lawyer just four months ago, with the task of reviving the Civil Procedural Reform, a process that has been stalled in Congress for over a decade. Meanwhile, journalist Sofía Shea, aged 24, who graduated only a year ago and had a scant seven-month internship at the agency of Felipe Costabal — director of the Communication Secretariat (SECOM) of the government — was promoted within a month to head the Digital Communication Department of SECOM.

Álamos, a graduate of the Catholic University, assumed her duties in March and now bears the responsibility of leading communications with bank representatives and financial institutions. Her role, according to government sources consulted by El Mostrador, is to be the «right hand» of the Capital Markets coordinator, Eugenio Symon, and she is actively participating in two flagship projects of Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz: the capital markets reform and the new Working Group for Exporting Financial Services.

However, within her own ministry, there are warnings that she has «zero experience to lead the subject.»

Engineer Lacking Experience in the Financial Sector

Álamos’ resume shows a focus on consulting and logistics, but a notable gap in banking and investment experience that she is now expected to regulate. She began her career in 2019 at Boston Consulting Group and worked at Montblanc Consulting before joining Uber, where she devised a strategy for the commercial logistics division, Uber Direct. Her exposure to finance is recent and brief, limited to a position as a senior analyst at Vinci Compass, a Latin American asset management firm, where she worked from July 2024 until March of this year, just before joining the government.

Despite this limited exposure, she has been tasked from Teatinos 120 with coordinating the ambitious reform of the capital markets. In this endeavor, Álamos is expected to work closely with Minister Quiroz, the president of the Financial Market Commission (CMF), Catherine Tornell, and advisor Carolina Krefft.

According to the cited media, her influence extends to the new Working Group for Exporting Financial Services, where she leads an initiative alongside Alexandro Cea, which the Kast administration hopes will eliminate barriers and position the sector as a driver of employment and foreign currencies.

Minister Quiroz has even stated that his goal is to make financial services the «second largest exporter after copper,» a promise that now rests on the shoulders of a professional who, according to the records, has no prior experience in the banking industry.

Appointments in Strategic Areas Raise Questions on Experience

This case at the Treasury is part of a worrying trend where other appointments have also prioritized loyalty over proven experience. Just days ago, a controversy erupted in the Ministry of Justice, where Trinidad Zegers Domínguez was appointed to coordinate the Civil Procedural Reform —

This complex task, which aims to unblock one of the pending modernizations within the judicial system, will be handled by a professional who was sworn in as a lawyer from the Catholic University on April 10, and who joined the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights that same month as an advisor, a position she will retain despite taking on this project that aims to replace a code that has been in force since 1903.

The same pattern has occurred with Sofía Shea, a journalist who rapidly rose through the ranks at the Communications Secretariat (SECOM). The 24-year-old, who graduated only a year ago from the Pontifical Catholic University and has prior experience consisting of a seven-month internship, was promoted to head the Digital Communication Department.

According to El Dinamo, based on the personal registry published in the Transparency Portal, Shea entered the General Secretariat of Government (Segegob) on March 11 as «support for coordination and management of the Secom Directorate,» at grade 14 of the salary scale — the entry level for contract professionals — with a gross salary of $1,395,665. (…) A month later, on April 13, she was promoted to “head of the Digital Communication Department,” jumping to grade 11, three levels higher in hierarchy and salary. (…) Her gross salary rose to $2,115,357 in May, with an increase to $3,538,024 in June — which was explained, according to the registry, by an incentive bonus of $1,393,053, the details of which the portal does not clarify — and returned to $2,144,971 in July.

Shea’s connection with the current government goes beyond her academic background. The young woman studied at the Faculty of Communications at the Pontifical Catholic University and completed her internship at La 975, the advertising agency directed by Felipe Costabal since 2018.

However, the current director of SECOM has a prior relationship with her family, as in 2011, when Nicolás Shea — Sofía’s father — was establishing Start-Up Chile at Corfo, he called on Costabal to be the program’s creative director, a role he held until 2012.

Together, these three cases paint a troubling picture for the administration of Kast, which insists on entrusting strategic projects to individuals lacking the technical competence and necessary experience for the subjects they must address.

*Featured image: El Mostrador and LinkedIn.