Jose Toasa
Jose Toasa is Wilkes Legal, LLC’s Chief Financial and Operations Officer.
Prior to joining Wilkes Legal, LLC in 2019, Mr. Toasa spent more than twelve years working for the U.S. federal government, most recently at the Inter-American Foundation where he served as the Foundation Representative for Guatemala and Belize. In that capacity, Mr. Toasa managed a portfolio of projects valued at approximately eighteen million dollars, and developed extensive relationships in Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and especially Guatemala. Mr. Toasa’s relationships in Central America have been forged through his more than one hundred trips to the region during the past twelve years. Mr. Toasa also has extensive experience in Colombia and Ecuador thanks to prior professional and personal experiences.
Mr. Toasa is skilled at building relationships across sectors and borders. In addition to co-leading delegations of federal agency and congressional staff, he has collaborated with numerous U.S. government agencies abroad, including the U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Embassy, the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Peace Corps. Currently in Central America, Mr. Toasa engages directly with officials at all levels of government, representatives from the international community, members of the private sector, such as CEOs, business owners, and philanthropists, community leaders, and everyday Central American citizens from all walks of life and all corners of the region.
At Wilkes Legal, in addition to managing the Firm’s ‘back office,’ Mr. Toasa also manages the Firm’s litigation support unit. In Central America and northern South America, Wilkes Legal maintains a network of lawyers and other professionals who provide support for a wide variety of legal matters, including immigration, criminal, civil and family.
Traveling frequently, Mr. Toasa maintains his relationships in Central and South America. Since January of 2019, Mr. Toasa has served as a personal investor in indigenous-led initiatives in Guatemala seeking to create social and economic conditions that will enable Guatemalans to thrive in their homeland. In 2020, Mr. Toasa founded Wilkes Investments, LLC to expand his investment portfolio in Guatemala.
Mr. Toasa holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from American University in Washington, DC. He is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in English.