16th Private Equity Latin America Forum

George Santoro is the Executive Secretary of Brazil’s Ministry of Transport and has a strong academic background in law, business administration, economics, and accounting, with specializations from renowned institutions in Brazil, the U.S., China, and Singapore. He led Brazil’s first sanitation concession project under the new regulatory framework in Alagoas and currently oversees the world’s largest portfolio of transport infrastructure projects. He’s Leading a package of railway concessions focusing on the Central-West and North regions, crucial for the flow of grains and other commodities. He has also overseen the establishment of a national commission to monitor rail projects planned and implemented by Brazil's freight concessionaires, ensuring effective oversight and progress in the railway sector.

Francisco Alvarez-Demalde is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Riverwood Capital, one of the leading global investment firms solely dedicated to technology growth and scalability. Mr. Alvarez-Demalde co-heads the Firm and has been involved in the scalability journey of several of Riverwood’s portfolio companies since its inception in 2008, as a partner to founders and management teams helping scale companies from the $10s of millions to the $100s of millions or more in revenues. During the past decade, Riverwood has been an active investor in more than 80 technology companies, which have grown their revenues at ~40% per year on average during Riverwood’s hold period. Prior to establishing Riverwood, Mr. Alvarez-Demalde was an investment executive at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), where he focused on leveraged buyouts in the technology industry and other sectors. He was also with Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Alvarez-Demalde has invested and been involved in the development, operations, and growth of several successful businesses across North America, Latin America and other geographies. Mr. Alvarez-Demalde earned a Licentiate (Honors) in Economics from Universidad de San Andres, Argentina (including an exchange program at the Wharton School). He has led investments in or is a current or former Director or Advisor of several technology companies and institutions, including 99, Alog Data Centers do Brasil, BigID, Billtrust (Nasdaq: BTRS), Cloudblue, Dock, Globant (NYSE: GLOB), Greenhouse, Industrious, Insider, LAVCA, Mandic, MotionPoint, Navent, Pixeon, RD Station, SecurityScorecard, Shiphero, SUMA, Technisys, VTEX (NYSE: VTEX), among others. Mr. Alvarez-Demalde is also a Global Ambassador with Endeavor, on the board of Him for Her, Founder of LTF and Digitar, and interested in non-profit initiatives related to education.

Mr. Henrique Meirelles is a Brazilian economist and politician with a prominent career in both the public and private sectors. He served as Brazil's Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2018, playing a crucial role in the country's economic reforms. Prior to that, he was President of the Central Bank of Brazil from 2003 to 2011, where he helped stabilize Brazil's economy. Meirelles has also held top positions in international finance, including as CEO of BankBoston. He ran for president in Brazil’s 2018 elections but was not elected. Henrique Meirelles is currently a member of Binance's Global Advisory Board, a position he took up in September 2022. This role allows him to leverage his extensive experience in global finance to provide guidance on regulatory and compliance issues related to the cryptocurrency industry. As Secretary of Finance & Planning for São Paulo state, his responsibilities include managing infrastructure projects and promoting both local and international investments.

Mr. Zucchini joined Advent in 1996. From 2001 to 2003, he was a Director in the São Paulo office, focusing on the services sector. From 2003 to 2007, he worked in the Buenos Aires office, and seven years ago he returned to Advent's São Paulo office. Before joining Advent, Juan Pablo worked at Grupo Perez Companc, where he participated in several privatization projects in Argentina, particularly in the oil & gas and energy industries. Juan Pablo has been involved in 21 of Advent's investments, including EBANX, Grupo Fleury S.A., Grupo Biotoscana, Grupo Farmaceutico Somar, Neoris, Prisma Medios de Pagos S.A., Skala Cosméticos, and Sophos Solutions.

Mansueto Almeida, economist and entrepreneur, is the Chief Economist and Partner at BTG Pactual bank. Beginning in 2018, he also served as Secretary of the National Treasury during Michel Temer's administration and remained in the role after President Jair Bolsonaro was elected, holding the position until 2020. The economist also served as head of the Economic Monitoring Secretariat, a state body responsible for addressing issues such as the country’s economic reform, factors directly linked to improvements in Brazil’s investment grade. Almeida is also known for his outstanding work at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), having previously served as General Coordinator of Monetary and Financial Policy at the Economic Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and as advisor to the Senate’s Regional Development and Tourism Commission.

Mr. Ackermann has worked at the IDB Group since 2009 focusing on financial markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, he leads the investment fund business of IDB Invest, including private equity and private debt. Andrés is a member of the investor advisory committees of various private equity and debt funds in which IDB Invest holds equity. Before IDB Group, he worked as Corporate Banking Manager and Corporate Finance/Capital Markets Manager at Citibank in Bolivia and as Middle Market Banking Manager and Financial Planning Manager at Banco de Crédito.

Arslan Mian, Managing Director, has over 25 years of private equity experience and has been with BlackRock Private Equity Partners (“PEP”) since 2005. He heads Americas’ investment team for PEP. He is also a member of PEP’s Investment Committee, Management Committee and Executive Committee. Since inception, PEP has raised over $45bn of commitments for private market investments across primary funds, secondaries and direct investments. Prior to joining PEP, he worked at various groups within UBS and TD including Private Equity, Financial Sponsors and M&A. Mr. Mian holds an MBA from University of Oxford’s Said Business School where he was a Rhodes Scholar and a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering (with distinction) from the College of Aeronautical Engineering, Pakistan.

Mr. Valente is MD and Brazil RE Head. He’s been with GIC since 2013, and has over 30 years of professional experience, 18 of which in real estate investments. He was director of BTG Pactual, worked with foreign trade and at Deloitte Consulting. He is an economist graduated from PUC-Rio and has a master's degree in Economics with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Montreal. 

Manuel Reyes Retana is IFC´s Regional Director for South America, covering Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and the Southern Cone. He leads the implementation of IFC’s strategy in the region, including our investment and advisory operations. 

Mario Malta joined Advent in 2003 and is the Managing Director responsible for investments in the Business and Financial Services Sector across Latin America. Mario has worked on 19 Advent investments including Easynvest, Nubank, EBANX, Grupo Cataratas, Cetip, GHL, LifeMiles, Nielsen and TCP, and sits in the Board of Director of EBANX. Former Directorships include Easynvest, Grupo Cataratas, Atmosfera, LifeMiles, Prisma, and TCP. Mario received a BA in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (EAESP– Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo) with majors in Corporate Finance and Corporate Strategy.

Mr. Suchodolski is the Executive Vice President of VR Investments. He is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center and a Senior Fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations, CEBRI. Previously he was the CEO of the Development Bank of São Paulo, Brazil. Prior to that he was CEO of the Development Bank of Minas Gerais (BDMG), Brazil and before that he was Director General, Strategy and Partnerships, at the New Development Bank in Shanghai, China. Earlier in his career, Mr. Suchodolski held senior positions in the public and private sectors in New York, Brasilia and Geneva.

Mrs. Chocolat is the Head of São Paulo office and is also responsible for leading and overseeing the Active Equities Investments Latin America group. Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2017, Tania was responsible for Private Equity investments in Brazil at Capital Group. Before that, Tania held various positions at Itaú Unibanco in the Investment Banking, Research and Private Banking Divisions, and was a financial analyst in the Investment Banking Department at J.P. Morgan. Tania holds a BA in Industrial Engineering from Escola Politécnica da Univerdade de São Paulo. Tania is currently a Board Member of Equatorial Energia,Totvs, LAVCA and OSESP.

Yoshi focuses innovative strategies and products with the investment horizon structures. He has more than 35 years of experience in investment and risk management. Before that, Mr. Kiguchi was a managing director of Russell Investments in Japan, where he supervised several teams, and delivered a wide range of consulting and solutions to the institutional clients including Toyota, Fujitsu, NEC, Sekisui, Toray, and Mazda. He joined Russell as a consultant in 1998.Prior to joining Russell, Mr. Kiguchi was with Sumitomo Life for ten years. He was placed in charge of corporate strategy, equity investments, researching capital markets, including private equities, and performing quantitative risk management and ALM.B.S., Precision Machinery (Robotics), the University of Tokyo, 1988.