Jorge Luis Buffa Mongelós · Director of Technology and Digital Transformation
A director with 25 years of experience, currently heading two departments at PRANA (Grupo Cartes): Web Development and New Technologies, and Digital Media. My work is to bring together three dimensions that rarely live in the same role: leading teams, design judgement, and the technical ability to build what gets decided.
I was part of the transformation of a five-person in-house team into an established agency in the Paraguayan market, and my role grew with that process: from designer to director. Along the way I led multidisciplinary teams of up to seven people —developers, designers, media specialists— and learned that leading a technical area well requires understanding the work being led.
That is why I still build. I designed and built Desk, the internal platform now used by 60 people at the agency, which replaced Monday.com and absorbed HR management. I manage the company-wide Google Workspace infrastructure. And I keep projects of my own where I test technology before bringing it to work, such as DoReSol, a music-learning platform I built end to end.
Self-taught since age 12, when I learned to program in BASIC. I went through every technological shift of the last 25 years by adopting it, not resisting it: from editorial design to Flash, from Flash to full-stack development, and today to integrating AI into the way we work. Currently studying Systems Analysis at Universidad Americana.
Team leadership — Multidisciplinary teams of up to 7: developers, web designers, community managers and digital media specialists. Hiring, training and follow-up.
Project management — Directing digital projects for multiple accounts at once, from discovery to production.
Technology decisions — Build-versus-buy assessment, stack definition, and replacing third-party tools with in-house developments.
Budget management — Running the digital advertising investment of the agency’s accounts. A position of trust handling company resources.
Client and stakeholder relations — Direct dealings with the group’s brands and external clients. Involvement in strategic and confidential projects.
Process transformation — Digitising manual company processes: quotes, project management, human resources.
PRANA S.A. · Grupo Cartes2020 — present
In charge of two departments within the company. Leading the development area: web projects for every account at the agency, games for brands and internal systems.
Desk: I identified the cost of the Monday.com licences, proposed the replacement and carried it out end to end —brand, design, development and rollout—. It is now used by 60 people. It later absorbed the company’s outdated HR system: personnel files, leave and attendance tracking from the phone. It keeps evolving, with an email module integrated via Gmail API with OAuth 2.0, internal messaging and an AI assistant.
Digitising internal processes that were done by hand, such as the quoting system. Managing the company-wide Google Workspace infrastructure: domain, accounts, corporate email and shared Drive.
Digital Media: leading the digital media team and the accounts’ advertising investment: planning, managing and optimising programmatic, Meta, TikTok and Google Ads campaigns.
Desk · 60 users Gmail API · OAuth 2.0 Google Workspace Meta · TikTok · Google Ads
PRANA S.A. · Grupo Cartes2016 — 2020
Led the digital area while PRANA consolidated as an agency in the Paraguayan advertising market, after its transformation from Grupo Cartes’ in-house department. Multidisciplinary team of up to 7: developers, web designers, community managers and media specialists. Digital strategy and execution for the group’s brands and external clients.
Tabacos del Paraguay S.A. · Grupo Cartes2010 — 2016
In charge of web and social media projects for all the group’s brands: Palermo, Kentucky, San Marino, the Pulp line, the Bebidas del Paraguay brands (Budweiser, Heineken, Paulaner, Schneider, Watts) and La Casa del Habano. Built the company’s first digital team, at a time when the area did not exist as such.
Flash and ActionScript sites when the local web was mostly static HTML. Several of them won the Tatakua de Oro in the web category, Paraguay’s top advertising award.
Tatakua de Oro · Web
Tabacos del Paraguay S.A. · Grupo Cartes2003 — 2010
Part of the founding five-person team of Grupo Cartes’ in-house agency: brand identity, advertising and strategy for the group’s brands. Gradual shift from graphic design to web design and development, taking the lead on digital projects.
Nasta Publicidad1999 — 2001
Graphic and advertising design for the agency’s accounts, alongside my Graphic Design studies. I left the agency after winning a scholarship to spend a year in Italy.
Artes Gráficas Zamphiropolos1998
Editorial design and prepress. My first print jobs had started earlier, while still at school.
Own projects and independent clients
doresol.com
Founder and developer. A freemium music-learning platform born from an observation: there are many sites to learn guitar or theory, but almost none with a user experience and an aesthetic that truly support learning. It adds the story behind every song and artist. Full-stack development: PHP 8.4, MySQL/MariaDB, Apache, JavaScript and Alpine.js. Four languages. Local AI infrastructure with Ollama and Python/Flask microservices for chord detection and lyric syncing.
bertarojas.com
Web design and development, independent client. Online presence of Berta Rojas, Paraguayan classical guitarist, 2022 Latin Grammy winner, Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and Board member of the Latin Recording Academy. An ongoing professional relationship of over a decade.
Projects in production
PRANA — Direction, design and development · prana.com.py
Retina — Direction, design and development · retina.com.py
Desk — Concept, design and full-stack development · desk.prana.com.py · private access
Berta Rojas — Design and development · bertarojas.com
DoReSol — Founder and developer · doresol.com
Mundo GC — Design, development and custom CMS · mundogc.com.py
Personal portfolio — Design and development · jorgebuffa.com
Stack
PHP 8 MySQL / MariaDB Apache REST APIs · OAuth 2.0 HTML5 · CSS · JavaScript Alpine.js Claude Code Ollama · Python/Flask Google Workspace Adobe CS UI / UX Google · Meta · TikTok Ads Programmatic
Systems Analysis — Universidad Americana · in progress
Graphic Design — Universidad Católica de Asunción · 3 years (1996–2001)
Marketing — Universidad Autónoma de Asunción · 1 year
Italian — acquired by immersion during a year living in Italy (2002)
English — Colegio Angloamericano
Portuguese — Centro de Estudios Brasileños
Accounting high-school diploma — Colegio Monseñor Lasagna (1993–1995)
Primary and lower secondary — Colegio de la Asunción (1984–1992)
Self-taught since age 12, when I learned to program in BASIC. Continuous updating in web development, systems architecture and integrating AI tools into the way we work.
Spanish — native
Italian — advanced
English — intermediate
Portuguese — reading