Josué C.

Velázquez-Martínez, PhD
Director, MIT GeneSys
http//genesys.mit.edu

josue@mit.edu | josue.mit.edu

Cambridge, MA, December 21st, 2020

Dear Yuri Achermann:

On behalf of the MIT GeneSys team, and partner universities, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for your passion,
commitment, and contributions in helping micro and small firms (MSEs) from Latin America mitigate the impact of the Covid-
19 crisis. As we have shared with you during this collaboration, MIT GeneSys is a research initiative committed to improve
survival and efficiency of MSEs in developing countries. Unfortunately, due the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of micro firms
went bankrupt over the course of the year, bringing a strong damage to the overall economy of the world, in particular to
developing countries.

However, thanks to your support, and the rest of your teammates and professor from your home university, we succeeded in
developing and executing a regional collaboration that involved 7 countries, 10 universities, 300 students, and more than 150
micro and small firms, from Latin America. Our team’s sole mission was to help MSEs mitigate the impact of Covid-19 via
three initiatives i.e. Cash-Supply Chain Management, Food safety, and Digitalization and e-Commerce.

Also, for the first time, we launched the GeneSys Research Fest 2020, a forum designed to host the best projects of the region.
All the GeneSys team was sincerely impressed with the quality, applicability, and innovation of the projects presented in this
event, and this was also possible thanks to your enthusiastic participation.

As we all share the mission of helping the community of MSEs, we hope that this experience will keep you inspired and
connected with your local community (i.e. you company under study), and the MIT GeneSys team. We are convinced that by
working together, we will certainly contribute to create a better future for Latin America.

Sincerely,

Josué C. Velázquez Martínez, PhD

1 Amherst Street, E40-379, Cambridge, MA 02142-1309