Meet Our Founders

Rafael Sámano Is a Mexican Attorney at Law, and the main Partner of Sámano Abogados, S.C. he is also a huge sponsor of the operatic arts, therefore he is the founder of Fundación Viva, which main areas of interest are education, health, culture and arts, through the Foundation Rafael has support the young tenor Octavio Rivas career.He is also with Joan Mitchell, the founders of San Miguel Metopera Trust, A.C.

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AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Administrative, financial and business development law. Litigation in administrative, commercial and amparo courts.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

He was Legal Director of the Economic Deregulation Unit (now COFEMER) of the Ministry of Economy, where he participated in the design and implementation of the Federal Competition Law and the reforms to the Regulatory Law of the Public Service of Electricity, to the National Water Law and to the Federal Consumer Protection Law, among forty other laws and regulations. Afterwards he was Adviser of the Executive Secretary of the Federal Antitrust Commission. Subsequently he was adviser to the Executive Secretary of the Federal Competition Commission. He lived in New York for several years during which time he worked as an Associate in the mergers and acquisitions area in the investment banks Bear Stearns & Co., and Merrill Lynch.

He participated in the IPO of TV Azteca, bond issuance of Unefon, design of Azteca Holdings, IPO of Banco Río (Argentina), and sale of Banco BHIF (Chile), among other operations. Since 2001, he has been Managing Partner of Sámano Abogados, S.C., where he has been dedicated to legally maintaining and supporting the corporate development of the business models of different companies in the fields of health, information technology, telecommunications, construction, toys and manufacturing, among others.

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EDUCATION

Bachelor of Law Degree. Escuela Libre de Derecho, 1992, Mexico City, Honorary Mention in Professional Exam.
Master of International Affairs, 1997, New York, Concentration in International Finance and Financial Institutions. School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) and Business School (CBS) – Columbia University (CU).
Master of Public Policy and Administration, 1996, New York, Concentration in Economics. SIPA and CBS. CU.

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ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AND PARTICIPATION IN ORGANIZATIONS‍

Lead Professor of the Foreign Trade and Insurance and Bonds courses. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM (2003-2006). Mexico City.
Assistant to Prof. Kenneth Kuttner, Columbia Business School, 1996. New York.
Adjunct Professor of Economic Law. Universidad Iberoamericana, 1994. Mexico City.
Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law. Escuela Libre de Derecho, 1992. Mexico City.
Member of the National Association of Corporate Lawyers (Asociación Nacional de Abogados de Empresa, Colegio de Abogados, A.C.) (ANADE) since 2013.
Member of the International Bar Association (IBA) since 2012.
Member of the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA) since 2012.

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PUBLICATIONS‍

“The Mexican Financial Crisis: a Case Study”, Columbia Business School, Monetary Theory Case Study B8351, by Keneth Kuttner and Rafael Sámano.
“La Nueva Legislación Económica en México”, in “El Derecho Económico en México”, Mexico: Porrúa, 1993.

Joan Mitchell retired to San Miguel de Allende, GTO, seven years ago after a distinguished professional career as a language professor, higher education administrator and fundraising executive. She holds a B.A. degree in French from Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA and graduate degrees in French, education, and information science from Harvard University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Her teaching career ranged from positions at Duquesne and Carnegie-Mellon Universities to an assignment at St. Edmund’s Academy in Pittsburgh, PA, where her French students ranged from 5-13 years of age, and which, she says, was by far the most challenging work.

After 17 years as a university library administrator she began her fund-raising career at Georgetown University, where she held the position of Director of Development Midwest USA Region, and then Director of Development for Student Affairs. After 7 years at Georgetown she was made VP for University Advancement at Marymount University of Virginia, a post that she also held later at her alma mater, Wilson College.

After retiring from higher education, Ms. Mitchell focused her fund-raising and management skills on the not-for-profit sector and the arts, serving for eight years as a board member, four of those as board chair, of the historic Capitol Theatre in Pennsylvania, then as fund-raising consultant to Jovenes Adelante, Feed the Hungry, and the San Miguel Instituto de Bel Canto, all NGO’s based in San Miguel de Allende, GTO.

A music student since childhood, Ms. Mitchell has been an opera lover since the age of 10, when a doting uncle began to teach her and then took her to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time when she was 14. In September 2017, she accepted the responsibility of bringing the MetOpera National Council (MONC) auditions to Mexico for the very first time. This required that she lead a fund-raising campaign which exceeded its goals and provide leadership for the planning and execution of the auditions, which brought 34 singers from all parts of Mexico to San Miguel de Allende on November 8, 2018. In June, 2019 she became president of the San Miguel MetOpera Trust, A.C., formed to ensure the future of the MetOpera auditions as an annual event in Mexico and to celebrate them as a milestone in the history of opera in Mexico.

Mr. Wiley received his BSChE from the University of Kansas in 1957, where he was elected to Alpha Chi Sigma, Sigma Tau and Tau Beta Pi. His first career of 31 years was with the chemical division of PPG Industries, and encompassed process development, R&D administration, and plant technical management. His second career of 11 years was with the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Industrial Technologies. Here he originated the concept of the Industries of the Future program, which facilitated the development of industry-owned visions and technology roadmaps (i.e., chemicals, petroleum refining, glass, aluminum, steel, metal casting, paper, agriculture). While at DOE Mr. Wiley undertook a 1-year detail with the Electric Power Research Institute in 1998 to work on their Technology Roadmap Initiative.

Mr. Wiley has held membership and served in a number of professional organizations, including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society. He was Chair of the National Capital Section, AIChE from 1998-1999, and was elected Fellow of AIChE in 2001.

Michael Sylvester: Master Teacher and TenorTenor Michael Sylvester, widely considered one of the finest lyric spinto tenors of his generation, holds a B.M. from Westminster Choir College and a M.M. from Indiana University. Mr. Sylvester has sung leading roles in the major opera houses of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Milan’s La Scala, Vienna Staatsoper, Opera Australia’s Sydney Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Paris Opera, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Houston Grand Opera, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, Staatsoper Berlin, Grand Theater de Geneva, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Florence’s Maggio Musicale, Hamburg Staatsoper, Bonn Staatsoper, Frankfurt Staatsoper, Opera de Toulouse, the New Israeli Opera and many others. During the 1990s, Mr. Sylvester sang more performances at the Metropolitan Opera of Radames in Verdi’s opera AIDA than any other tenor. A 1989 article in USA Today named Mr. Sylvester as one of the two most important tenors of his generation. Among others his opera repertoire includes Radames in AIDA (which he has sung over 150 times), the title role Don Carlo in DON CARLO, Adorno in SIMON BOCCANEGRA, Cavaradossi in TOSCA, Pinkerton in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Calaf in TURANDOT, Rodolfo in LA BOHEME, Bacchus in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, Der Kaiser in DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, Samson in SAMSON ET DALILA, Don Jose in CARMEN and Pollione in NORMA. All in all, he has performed close to fifty leading roles. The many works he has performed in concert include Verdi’s REQUIEM, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony #8 and Beethoven’s Symphony #9 with orchestras worldwide. Among his recordings are the title role in DON CARLO with James Levine (Sony Classics), Adorno in SIMON BOCCANEGRA with Sir George Solti (Decca), Calaf in TURANDOT (EMI video), Mahler’s Symphony #8 with Robert Shaw (Telarc) and Mendelssohn’s Die ertse Walpurgisnacht (Arabesque). Additionally, he has been featured in numerous Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and in other broadcast and televised performances around the world.

Currently, Mr. Sylvester serves on the faculty of Wichita State University. Before that he was on the faculty at DePaul University, and Indiana University. He is Co-Director and Founder of the San Miguel Institute of Bel Canto, a summer training program for select singers with career potential. In 2018 he founded the first ever Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Mexico. Commonly referred to as the Met Auditions, this historic Mexico District Met Opera Auditions is the first Met District outside of the USA in many decades, and only the second international district. He served as the Master Teacher and Artist-in-Residence for the Concurso San Miguel opera competition, the largest for Mexican opera singers. Mr. Sylvester teaches annually at the iSing! Festival in China and at Chicago Summer Opera. In 2013 he was invited to be the Artist-in- Residence at the Art Song Festival at the University of Toledo. He has students performing in North America and Europe and several that have been successful in national competitions. In recent years, Mr. Sylvester has turned his performing talents toward recital and concert work, having given recitals in Chicago, Rochester (NY), Atlanta, Toledo (OH), Indianapolis, Ridgefield (CT), Wichita (KS), and San Miguel de Allende (Mexico). Concerts have included Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Beethoven’s Symphony #9. He has just finished his first book, English Diction and Enunciation for North American Singers, and is finalizing its publication and eventual interactive e-book publication. Currently he is working on a project called A Survey of Historically Important Classical Singers of the 20th Century, an audio project aimed at introducing young singers to the singers that came before them.