Founding Partners
GONÇALO SÁ
With 27 years of experience in M&A and Corporate Finance, Gonçalo worked for 20 years in foreign financial institutions in Brazil and abroad. He started his career as a lawyer focused on cross-border transactions at BankBoston Brazil’s legal department. He then moved to BankBoston’s Corporate Finance division where he became director, first in Brazil and, subsequently, at the head office in the U.S. (Boston) where he focused on Global Emerging Markets transactions. He left BankBoston to become a founding partner of VGL. He holds a law degree from University of São Paulo (USP) and an MBA and has attended various courses of finance at Harvard and at Insead.
JOSÉ PAULO MACEDO
With more than 27 years of experience in M&A and Corporate Finance, José Paulo worked for 16 years in foreign financial institutions in Brazil and abroad. For 3 years, he was an associate director at investment bank West Merchant Bank in London, responsible for fixed income bond issuances, M&A and leverage transactions for Brazilian clients. He has also held director positions at the Corporate & Structured Finance divisions of WestLB Bank, BankBoston and ING Bank, in Brazil. Prior to co-founding VGL, he has also held the position of Investor Relations director at a listed company in Brazil. He graduated in business administration from the University of São Paulo – FEA/USP.
THIERRY VAN NIEUWENHOVE, CFA
Thierry worked for 7 years in equity research and corporate finance at BankBoston, where he was involved in financial advisory mandates for companies participating in privatization processes and in mergers and acquisitions. He then served as director of investments at BancBoston Capital for 2 years, being responsible for origination, analysis, negotiation and monitoring of BankBoston’s proprietary private equity investments. Before co-founding VGL, he also served for 4 years as CFO of Softway, a company controlled by an investment fund. Prior to moving to Brazil in 1994, he worked in Luxembourg and Japan. Thierry graduated in business administration from Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and holds a MBA from Cornell University (USA).
Leadership Team
ARTHUR VALLE SALLES, CFA
Arthur joined VGL in 2015 and since then has successfully completed various transactions across different sectors such as education, financial services, manufacturing, consumer goods and professional services. He previously worked for Rocket Internet, Europe's largest venture capital firm. He graduated with honor in Production Engineering from the Escola Politécnica (Engineering School) of the University of São Paulo (POLI-USP).
DANIEL ROCHA
With over 14 years of experience in the financial markets, Daniel started his career in the Macroeconomic Research team at Credit Suisse, and also participated in the issuance of debt securities for Brazilian companies in Morgan Stanley´s Fixed Income Capital Markets division. Daniel was a member of Morgan Stanley´s, Rothschild´s and Credit Suisse´s Investment Banking teams, where he led the execution of M&A and capital market transactions for companies across several sectors for 10 years. Daniel has a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
JIM KATAYAMA
Partner of VGL. He has participated in various M&A transactions of middle sized companies, including education, auto motors, agribusiness, retail, cosmetics, oil and gas and financial industries. Prior to VGL he acted as a manager in corporate finance at PricewaterhouseCoopers providing financial advisory services to middle and large companies in processes of IPOs, in M&A and in optimizing their cost of capital. He holds a bachelor degree in Business Administration from University of Sao Paulo (FEA-USP) and has attended various courses of finance at FGV-EAESP.
PHILIPPE RICCIARDI
With over eight years of experience in M&A and Corporate Finance, he is a partner at VGL Fusões & Aquisições. Previously, he worked at Credit Suisse Investment Bank for six years, and at Lazard for two more years. During this period, he was responsible for successfully carrying out several M&A and capital market transactions across sectors such as Consumer and Retail, Education, Technology, Infrastructure, Energy, Healthcare, among others. He graduated in Economic Sciences from Insper.
SEBASTIÃO VENTURA
Partner and legal counsel at VGL. Sebastião served as Director and Vice-President of the Federation of Business Entities of Rio Grande do Sul (FEDERASUL). Certified by the Harvard Negotiation Program for Senior Executives, he has been actively involved in various complex business negotiations. He writes periodically for Estadão, Valor Econômico, Gazeta do Povo, Público (Lisbon), among other digital and printed media. He is currently the Chairman of the Millenium Institute, one of the leading think tanks in Latin America.
VICTOR A. CAMARINHA SACAGUTI
Victor joined VGL in 2015. He has participated and successfully completed various transactions in health, pharmaceutical, retail, services and food & beverage industries. Victor holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Escola Politécnica (Engineering School) of the University of São Paulo (POLI-USP).