The Two-Way Business of the Director of the Colombian Society of Pediatrics

The most powerful woman in Colombia’s pediatricians’ union has been immersed in an obvious conflict of interest for eight years. Gloria Helena Zuccardi Hernández is the executive director of the Colombian Society of Pediatrics (SCP, for its Spanish acronym), a non-profit scientific organization whose statutes commit to safeguarding children’s health. It has advised the government on public health issues related to children, claiming it is independent. Meanwhile, Zuccardi owns a company she founded in 2017 to do business with the pharmaceutical, ultra-processed food, and beverage industries.

This dual role is far from being a problem for her within the SCP. On the contrary, a group of pediatricians, directors of the same organization, including its president, Mauricio Guerrero, now act as advisors to Zuccardi’s company.

This is the second installment of VORÁGINE’s investigation into the conflicts of interest plaguing the SCP due to its business relationships with the ultra-processed food and pharmaceutical industries.

From Panama to Cartagena

Gloria Zuccardi is not a pediatrician. She is a 48-year-old business administrator from Barranquilla who joined the SCP in 2002, when she was just 26. As we explained in the first installment, she came on board when the organization was in the red and was responsible for setting it on a path to economic prosperity. She did so, however, thanks to trade agreements that have been questioned by pediatricians from the SCP itself and other civil society organizations, businesses that also ignore ethical recommendations from the World Health Organization. For nearly 25 years, the scientific society of physicians who advise parents on their children’s nutrition has received funding from the ultra-processed food industry, helped promote its products, and facilitated those companies’ co-optation of pediatricians.

Zuccardi’s job title has varied from manager, executive director, and, as she calls herself, on their social networks, CEO of the SCP. In any case, she is in charge of raising funds so the organization can hold events and offer courses that will allow the nearly 5,000 affiliated pediatricians to update their knowledge. And she is also perhaps the sector’s most visible face: One day she appears in a video supporting a vaccination program in La Guajira; another, in a photo with the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Colombia; and the next day, promoting SCP events.

By 2017, after 15 years in the position, Zuccardi had earned the support of the majority of SCP’s pediatric directors. Above all, she was well-versed in the business practices of her main clients: pharmaceutical companies and companies that produce ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks.

On February 7, 2017, she created a company called Exemedis SAS together with two pediatricians and former presidents of the SCP: Hernando Villamizar Gómez and Fernando Visbal Amador. The company was founded in Cúcuta, where Villamizar has his practice, and the shares were distributed so that each of the two doctors retained 33%, and Zuccardi, 34%.

The objective was clear from the start, and was reflected in the statutes: Exemedis would exist, among other reasons, to “develop Continuing Medical Education activities in both virtual and in-person modalities aimed at physicians and healthcare professionals” (something in which the SCP were well-versed, given it trains its affiliated pediatricians); “operation of events, conferences, and other activities (…) related to Continuing Medical Education” (another field in which the SCP also had experience and was growing increasingly more involved); “consulting for events and activities for the pharmaceutical and consumer industries (as the ultra-processed food industry is known), as well as for (…) companies that wish to project their brand through Continuing Medical Education programs.” The companies they would seek as clients would be the same ones that Zuccardi had already secured as clients of the SCP.

All of this was in essence the same thing that the SCP had already done to seek funding, with Zuccardi at the helm. But there was one obvious and substantial difference: it was a private business. A source who knew about the company at the time described it as “the business they created to use the director’s connections to make a profit.”

The mere creation of Exemedis left Zuccardi involved in a double role that represented a conflict of interest, as well as the pursuit of a double-edged business: as executive director of the SCP she earned her salary defending the interests and seeking money from a medical association that publicly presents itself as independent and even promotes itself as government advisor “for the development of policies aimed at the children of Colombia”, given the agreements it forged with the Colombian Ministry of Health and Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF). Meanwhile, as a partner at Exemedis she intended to make money by advising and working for industries whose products often negatively impact public health and defending private interests. VORÁGINE has documented, for example, the deceptive advertising strategies of the ultra-processed food industry used on children.

The creation of Exemedis, and Zuccardi’s subsequent dual role from that moment on, was no secret to SCP management. She “has always been transparent with the SCP about her relationship with Exemedis (…), which is evidenced in documents in our archives,” the organization’s president, pediatrician Mauricio Guerrero, responded in writing to VORÁGINE.

That transparency, however, was not reflected in the public activities undertaken by Exemedis. The company launched a website (no longer active, but which remains on file) in which the visible faces were Villamizar, as “Director of Global Alliances,” and Visbal, as “Director of Medical Affairs.” Zuccardi was nowhere to be seen.

And so they began to organize their first project: an international meeting of pediatricians. To ensure top-tier guests, they partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School hospital. This move, more than a great feat, confirmed that they would take advantage of the contacts made at the SCP, since Boston Children’s had been an ongoing ally in the pediatric association’s events.

The event, called ‘Care in Pediatrics: Conference of the Americas’, was held May 3-5, 2018, in Panama. According to Exemedis, 667 doctors attended, which gave them the impetus to hold a second conference, May 2-4, 2019, in Cartagena, which, according to them, was attended by nearly a thousand people.

At both events, the two doctors remained the visible faces of the company and were constantly on stage as hosts. In this photo, Villamizar appears at the lectern during the event’s opening in 2019, while Visbal is seen at the main table (first on the left). Zuccardi attended, but as just another participant.

The Accounts

It is no coincidence that the three partners created Exemedis to organize medical conferences. The SCP, led by Zuccardi, has become a consistent organizer of such events. As described in our first report in this series, the SCP went from organizing one large event every two years (the National Pediatrics Congress) to hosting at least six large-scale events. At each of these events the company sets up commercial areas with stands made available only to the pharmaceutical and ultra-processed industries so they can offer their products. They also sell them space to hold symposiums for pediatricians during these conferences. With the money they receive from the industry, they cover the event’s costs and, ideally, make a profit.

The two “Conferences of the Americas” organized by Zuccardi and her two partners at Exemedis used a virtually identical structure, with commercial areas and industry symposia integrated into the general academic program. The commercial area at the 2019 conference in Cartagena, for example, was populated by laboratories such as Tecnoquímicas, multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi and GSK, and the food company Alpina. Pfizer, Alpina and GSK also organized symposia.

There was money and business was looking good. The three partners founded Exemedis with $10 million COP in 2017, and by 2018, the first year they held a ‘Conference of the Americas,’ they were reporting revenues of $667 million COP and profits of $105 million COP, according to reports filed with the Chamber of Commerce.

The following year, in 2019, they reported revenues of $561 million COP and Zuccardi, Villamizar, and Visbal announced on the Exemedis and Conference of the Americas social media the third version of the conference in Pereira, for August 2020. But Covid got in the way. Since then, the company has not organized any other events.

However, just a few months ago, they made moves that not only involve Zuccardi, but other SCP executives as well.

The New Advisors

In their responses to VORÁGINE, Zuccardi and SCP president Guerrero dismiss any questions regarding a possible conflict of interest that Exemedis represents for them.

In fact, in a statement published on the SCP’s website by the board of directors when it learned that VORÁGINE would be publishing this article, it states that “under her employment contract, [Zuccardi] is allowed to carry out professional activities and provide external consulting services outside the SCP.”

In that statement and in the responses sent to VORÁGINE, they argue that Exemedis “has not engaged in any activity, event, or partnership with any entity in the last six years.” And in another communication, Guerrero refers to Exemedis as “an inactive commercial company.”

This is partially true. It’s true that Exemedis hasn’t organized any events since the one in Cartagena in 2019. However, Zuccardi has recently reactivated the company: a year ago, on April 1, 2024, after the company went into hiatus due to Covid, Villamizar and Visbal transferred their shares to Zuccardi, making her the sole owner. And she, far from liquidating it, changed the address registered with the Chamber of Commerce to her home address in Bogotá, and not the one in Cúcuta.

And six months ago, Exemedis launched its new website, listing contact information that was different from what she reported to the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. She used the phone number of her husband, Iván Darío Quijano Gordillo, as her own and used the address of the office of her sister-in-law (her brother’s wife), Natalia Quijano, in northern Bogotá.

On this website, Exemedis lists the two ‘Conferences of the Americas’ to showcase Zuccardi’s professional history and once again offers the pharmaceutical and ultra-processed food industries a new package of services, including —in addition to organizing medical events— product launches, recruiting speakers, producing academic publications and developing communications campaigns and websites. The company also lists the SCP as a strategic ally.

But perhaps the biggest news is the increasingly visible support from a burgeoning group of advisors, which pushes Exemedis into the foreground. From the outset, Zuccardi has used her title as director of the SCP, as if she were an outsider, despite the fact that she is actually the owner of Exemedis (not stated anywhere on the page).

In their responses to VORÁGINE, President Guerrero and Zuccardi say that Exemedis and the SCP are “separate entities, with their own objectives.” And although this may be true on paper, what this new group of advisors demonstrates is that the communicating vessels between one and the other are now stronger than ever. The current group includes four pediatricians who are members of the current SCP board of directors, starting with Guerrero himself; and continuing with Iliana Curiel, Claudia Beltrán, and former president Marcela Fama (also currently the president of the Latin American Association of Pediatrics).

After VORÁGINE questioned Director Zuccardi and President Guerrero about the content of the Exemedis website on February 14, 2025, the page went down for “maintenance” (see an archived version here).

Neither responded to inquiries regarding whether the dual roles of the board members who now appear as advisors to Exemedis represent a conflict of interest. They simply stated: “The aforementioned doctors are scientific advisors for activities that could be carried out in the future for Latin America.”

In other words, they minimize the past and deny that Exemedis has a present, but they do foresee a possible future for it. This means the company will continue to exist, and Zuccardi will be able to go back into business at any time with the support of her colleagues at the SCP.

* This investigation was funded, in part, by Vital Strategies. The content is editorially independent and is intended to shine a light on illegal or unethical practices in the food and beverage industry and on the fact that it is the most vulnerable populations who disproportionately bear the brunt of the health crisis caused by the consumption of unhealthy food and beverages. Unless otherwise noted, all statements published in this story, including those regarding specific legislation, reflect the views of the particular organizations, and not of Vital Strategies.

If you have more information on this or other topics please write to carloshernandezoso@gmail.com