Our team
Oswaldo G. Schmidt
After working as a trader at Banco Pactual, Oswaldo worked for twelve years at Conglomerate Unibanco where he held several executive roles. Among them, he was one of the executives selected to structure Unibanco Asset Management, the first independent asset manager of a large Brazilian retail bank, where he served as Director responsible for the variable income desk for 4 years. When Unibanco established a partnership with AIG in the area of insurance and pension plans, Oswaldo was responsible for managing the group’s technical reserves with the objective of establishing ALM between financial assets and liabilities, including the management of real estate and private equity assets. During this period, when he was responsible for the technical reserves of the companies of the JV Unibanco-AIG, Oswaldo also acted as Investment Director at Multipla – Fundo Multipatrocinado de Previdência Privada. Subsequently, he headed the area of derivatives products and the trading desk for the Middle Market at the investment bank. After leaving Unibanco, Oswaldo was the Director responsible for structured operations at Citibank for 3 years. He holds a degree in civil engineering from PUC-RJ and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. With a declaratory act of the CVM, CGA and CPA-20, Oswaldo is the manager responsible for Versal Finance.
Álvaro de Sá Freire
With three decades of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Project Finance and Corporate Restructuring in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America, Álvaro served for 12 years as Director of Mergers and Acquisitions and, subsequently, Head of Investment Banking at Unibanco, after installing and serving for 2 years as General Director of DLJ Securities Corporation (Brazil), a company later acquired by Credit Suisse to be its Private Equity arm in Brazil, and for 6 years as Vice President of Citicorp Investment Bank. During this period, he initiated private equity investments in Brazil, managing Citicorp’s investments in the country. Highlights for the investment in Telebras and Grupo Ultra. Currently, Álvaro is the chief economist at Versal. Previously, he served for 8 years at the World Bank Group as Investment Officer at the LA & Caribbean Investment Dep’t of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Project Finance Specialist at Asia-Pacific Industrial Projects and Operations Officer at the Finance Companies Division of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has also served as a member of the Boards of Directors of FINAME / BNDES, the Interamerican Corporation for Infrastructure Finance (C.I.F.I.), Washington, DC and several private companies in Brazil and abroad. Álvaro holds a degree in Economics and an MBA in Finance, COPPE / UFRJ with a specialization in International Trade and Finance – Georgetown University; Corporate Finance – Harvard Business School and Global Business Strategy – IMD, Lausanne.
Claudia do Rego Barros
With more than twenty years of experience, Claudia has been the Legal and Compliance Director at Versal since 2016. Claudia has a postgraduate degree in Economics and Business Law from Fundação Getulio Vargas and a law degree from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro – PUC /RJ
Previously, Claudia worked in the legal department of OSX Brasil S.A, having previously worked at Tauil & Checker Advogados – associated with Mayer Brown, Siqueira Castro Advogados and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.
Silvia Helena
With over thirty years of experience in the financial market, Silvia has extensive experience in managing investment funds. She has in-depth knowledge of financial instruments and products, regulation and operational obligations of funds. Before joining Versal, Silvia worked at Fundação Attilio Fontana (Grupo Sadia), at Concórdia S/A CVMCC (Grupo Sadia), Coinvalores CCVM and Link Corretora. In these houses, she assumed responsibilities on the client acquisition table (Individuals and Companies), formation of Investment Clubs, Equity Fund Management, Equity Clubs and Managed Portfolios. She also coordinated structured finance offerings in primary and secondary markets for Retail. On the research side, Silvia followed companies in the Energy, Telecommunications and Steel sectors. Silvia has a postgraduate degree in Capital Markets from FEA/USP and a degree in Business Administration from Unip. She is currently responsible for Versal’s operational and Back-office area.