INVESTMENT BANKING
- Benjamin S. A. Moody
- Ralph von Specht
- Mauricio Borgonovo Baldocchi
- Alessio Mazzanti
- Oscar Jose Garcia Nevett
- Ricardo Rodriguez
SENIOR ADVISORS
INVESTMENT BANKING
Benjamin S. A. Moody
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Ben Moody is Co-founder and Managing Director of PAF Securities and Pan American Finance. Ben has over 25 years experience in investment banking, corporate finance and private equity, and has worked extensively with companies in Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S. Hispanic markets. Ben possesses specific expertise in the Media and Communications, Retailing, Tourism and Transportation sectors.
From 1998 to 2001, Ben served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Ibero American Media Partners ("IAMP"), a $500 million private equity fund jointly owned by the Cisneros Group of Companies and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. The fund made investments in the pay television, broadcast TV, radio and internet sectors: in 1998 acquiring the Cisneros Television Group, where Ben was Vice Chairman, and in 2001 merging with El Sitio to form Claxson Interactive Group (NASDAQ: XSON). Throughout his tenure at IAMP, Ben was responsible for negotiating, executing and integrating the fund's acquisitions along with performing his duties as CFO.
Prior to IAMP, Ben served as Managing Director at Violy, Byorum & Partners, an investment banking firm focused on Latin America, and held positions with Citicorp Securities and Continental Bank. Ben currently serves on the board of directors of various companies. He is a graduate of Oxford University. You can e-mail Ben at: ben@pafsecurities.com
Ralph von Specht
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Ralph von Specht is Co-founder and Managing Director of PAF Securities and Pan American Finance. During the last 35 years, Ralph has provided financial advisory services to companies and governments on several continents. He has extensive transaction experience in Consumer Products, Food and Beverage, and Industrials and Manufacturing sectors.
In the seventies and eighties, he worked for J.P. Morgan in Europe, the United States and Latin America, managing and executing mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, project financings and corporate finance transactions such as debt and equity placements, bank refinancings, and loan syndications. He also served as J.P. Morgan's representative on the debt refinancing advisory committees for Argentina and Venezuela and led several large restructuring transactions, such as Aerolíneas Argentinas, Banco de la Nación de Argentina, Electricidad de Caracas, Toyota de Venezuela and General Motors de Venezuela. In 1988, Ralph founded La Ceiba Finance, a firm that became one of the leading corporate finance advisors in Venezuela. He also represented the interests of ING Bank in that country and became its joint-venture partner.
Ralph maintains an extensive network of contacts with financial institutions, investors and multinational corporations throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. He is an advisor in Latin America to DEG (the German Government's Development Bank) and Berenberg Bank (Germany's oldest private bank), as well as a board member of Venecredit Securities in Miami. He is a graduate of Hamburg University and the European Business School in Frankfurt, Paris and London. You can e-mail Ralph at: ralph@pafsecurities.com.
Mauricio Borgonovo Baldocchi
Director
Mauricio Borgonovo Baldocchi is Director of PAF Securities. Mauricio has 15 years experience advising and operating companies in Latin America and the United States. During his career, he has participated in a variety of merger and acquisition, capital raising, recapitalization and leveraged buyout assignments.
Mauricio currently serves on the board of several companies in the Central American region, including General Business Machines (GBM), a company that in 1991 acquired six IBM subsidiaries in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Mauricio holds a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can e-mail Mauricio at: mborgonovo@pafsecurities.com.
Alessio Mazzanti
Director
Alessio Mazzanti is Director of PAF Securities. Alessio has over 15 years experience in investment banking, corporate finance and business management. He has worked in strategic advisory and M&A assignments throughout Latin America in various industries including Transportation and Logistics, Media and Entertainment (including pay television, broadcast television and radio), Telecommunications, Banking and Food & Beverage.
From 2001 to 2005, Alessio worked with Valorem, the investment arm of the Santo Domingo Group. Most recently, he was the President of Gamma Carriers, where he guided the international expansion of Valorem’s shipping and logistics business into the US Hispanic market until its 2005 sale. Prior to that, he advised Valorem on operational and turn-around strategies for both Caracol TV and Caracol Radio, Valorem’s principal media investments.
From 1997 to 2001, Alessio worked with Violy, Byorum & Partners, an investment banking firm in New York, where he provided strategic advisory services and M&A transaction execution expertise in the Andean region and across Latin America. Alessio's education includes Engineering and MBA degrees from Universidad de los Andes, with additional postgraduate education in Management and Economics at Harvard Business School and London School of Economics. You can e-mail Alessio at: amazzanti@pafsecurities.com
Oscar Jose Garcia Nevett
Director
Oscar Jose Garcia Nevett is Director of PAF Securities. Oscar has 10 years experience in commercial and investment banking and, as an attorney, has also advised companies extensively in matters of corporate law in Venezuela. During his career, Oscar has served as an associate of the Nevett & Mezquita law firm in Venezuela and as Chief Risk Officer of Venezolano de Credito Banco Universal.
Oscar holds a law degree from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, a Master of Law degree from the University of Pennsylvania law school, and a Master of Science in Management degree from the Arthur D. Little School of Management. Oscar is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Distrito Federal Bar Association in Venezuela. You can e-mail Oscar at: ogarcia@pafsecurities.com.
Ricardo Rodriguez
Associate
Ricardo Rodriguez has 3 years of experience in investment banking and asset management, advising clients in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Prior to joining PAF Securities, he worked with the Latin American Mergers and Acquisitions group at Standard Bank on a variety of corporate finance engagements, including valuation analysis and mergers and acquisitions advisory, primarily for financial institutions. From 2005 to 2006, Ricardo worked in the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he helped manage over $1.2 billion in assets for private clients and institutions.
Ricardo holds a Master of Science degree in Management Science and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University. You can e-mail Ricardo at: rrodriguez@pafsecurities.com
SENIOR ADVISORS
Victor Manuel Hoyos
Senior Advisor
Victor Manuel Hoyos is Senior Advisor to Pan American Finance. He has over 25 years of experience in finance and banking across Latin America and presently serves as consultant to the CAF (Corporacion Andina de Fomento) and other multilateral institutions. Throughout his long career, Victor has served in numerous prominent positions, including as General Treasurer of Ecopetrol, Chief Financial Officer of CAF, CEO of Bancoldex (Export-Import Bank of Colombia), and Managing Director of Vestcorp Colombia (affiliate of VestcorParners). He has served on the boards of directors of various financial institutions in Colombia and Venezuela, including that of BLADEX. Victor has completed undergraduate and post-graduate studies at Universidad de los Andes (Bogota), University of Birmingham (U.K.), and INSEAD.
Mayu Hume
Senior Advisor
Mayu Hume is Senior Advisor to Pan American Finance. For over 30 years she has occupied positions of leadership in the public and private sector, and currently serves on the board of 16 for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in Peru including ING Wealth Management, Austral Group S.A., E. Wong S.A., AFP Integra, Calidda S.A., Promujer Internacional, Fundacion Peruana del Cancer, and IPAE. Mayu has also served as Country Manager in Peru and Colombia for ING Group, as Vice Minister of Commerce (Peru), and as advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank. She holds Social Science, Engineering, and Management degrees from Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and has completed post-graduate work at Universidad de Piura, IESE, and University of Michigan.
Hendrick Luhl
Senior Advisor
Hendrik Luhl is Senior Advisor to Pan American Finance. He has over 25 years of experience as a banker with development finance institutions, having joined the German Development Bank (DEG) in 1980, serving initially as head of various Asian divisions and then as Director and Head of the Latin American Department, where he was responsible for originating and structuring debt and equity transactions. Hendrik retired from DEG in 2006 to work independently as a financial advisor. He is a graduate of Freiburg University in Germany.
Craig Reynald
Senior Advisor
Craig Reynald is Senior Advisor to Pan American Finance. He has over 35 years of experience as a senior business executive in Trinidad and Tobago and over 15 years as a media industry leader in the Caribbean. Craig was formerly CEO and a Director of One Caribbean Media (OCM), having led the creation of OCM through the merger of Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) of Trinidad and Tobago and The Nation Corporation of Barbados. Prior to OCM, Craig served as CEO and a Director of CCN for over 10 years, where he was able to significantly improve CCN's performance financially and amongst viewers and readers to the benefit of its shareholders and employees. Craig has also served in other leadership positions throughout his career, including as CEO of BWIA (now Caribbean Airlines), Managing Director of Penta Paints Caribbean, Chairman of the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN), and Chairman of Caribbean News Agency (CANA). Craig has also been a member of the board of directors of the Caribbean Media Company (CMC), the Jamaica Observer, and The Nation Corporation. Craig is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London.
