Bernal Rodríguez has more than 30 years of experience in Management and Leadership positions in Manufacturing, Engineering, Production and Operations, working with several multinational companies, both inside and outside Costa Rica. He has an extensive track record in managing complex plant startups, technology process and product transfers and new product introduction. Bernasl is the founder and CEO of ITEK, the only Costa Rican manufacturing services company catering to the Life Sciences ecosystem. Since the start of operations in 2017, ITEK has grown from 3 employees to more than 125 today and it provides nearshoring solutions to nine Medical Device customers with products ranging from sub-assemblies and components to OEM devices. He has an Electronics Engineering degree from the Institute of Technology of Costa Rica (TEC) and obtained the dual Master's degree in Global Business from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico) and Global Master of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (United States). He enjoys reading, traveling and, more recently, riding his motorcycle around Costa Rica.