Executive Officers

Mario Mello, 54
Chief Executive Officer and Director

Since 2013, Mr. Mello has served as an advisory board member and Operating Partner of Valor Capital Group, a growth equity and venture capital investment firm focused on United States and Brazil cross border opportunities. From 2010 to 2018, Mr. Mello was General Manager and General Director of PayPal Latin America. From 1996 to 2003, Mr. Mello served as Vice President, Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President of Visa do Brasil and Visa Latin America. Prior to joining Visa Latin America, Mr. Mello was a Statutory Director of Banco Real (which was acquired by Santander). Mr. Mello is currently a Board Member of Construtora Tenda S.A., a Brazilian real estate development company (since 2017), Track & Field Co. S.A., a Brazilian sportswear company (since 2018) and PicPay, a Brazilian payments company (since February 2021), as well as a board member of certain Valor Capital Group invested companies, including Loopa, SolFacil and QuasarFlash. Mr. Mello is also the Founder and President of O Poder do Voto, a civic service non-profit start-up company in Brazil that promotes political transparency. Mr. Mello has also served on the board of directors of Cielo, Alelo, CBSS and Fidelity Systems. Mr. Mello has a BSE in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic School at the University of São Paulo (1988).

J. Douglas Smith, 59
Chief Financial Officer

Since August 2011, Mr. Smith has served as CFO and Executive Vice President of Valor Capital Group, a growth equity and venture capital investment firm focused on United States and Brazil cross border opportunities. Mr. Smith serves on the investment committee of the four investment funds managed by Valor Capital’s venture arm. Mr. Smith is also a Managing Director at Wesray Social Investments, having worked for Wesray and affiliates since May 1986, where he is a member of the investment committee and oversees private investments for its affiliates and the related family office. Mr. Smith also sits on the investment committee of the MCJ Foundation and The Goldhirsh Foundation and until 2019 was on Board of Governors at the St. Joseph’s High School Foundation.  From 2010 to March 2017, Mr. Smith also served as an advisor to and assisted with the launch of the Collaborative Fund, a seed venture firm. Mr. Smith began his career at Price Waterhouse in August 1983 and continued at the firm through May 1986, during which time he earned his CPA license. Mr. Smith left Price Waterhouse as a Tax Senior before joining Wesray Capital. Corp. in May 1986. Mr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics/Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross (1983).

Board of Directors

Clifford M. Sobel, 72
Chairman of the Board

Since 2011, Mr. Sobel has served as managing Partner of Valor Capital Group, a growth equity and venture capital investment firm focused on United States and Brazil cross border opportunities. Since 2012, Mr. Sobel has served as partner of Related Brazil, a mixed use developer. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Sobel was President and Chairman of Net2Phone, an internet telephony company. Mr. Sobel also serves on the board of the Council of the Americas (2016 to present), Council of American Ambassadors (2016-Present) and Christie’s Advisory Board for the Americas (2017 to present). Mr. Sobel also served on the board of Diamond Offshore Drilling (2011-2020), and the board of Aegon (NYSE – AEG) (2006) and Alpinvest (2005-2006). Mr. Sobel has a Bachelor’s degree in management from New York University (1972).

Scott Sobel, 46
Director

Since 2011, Mr. Sobel has served as co-founder and managing Partner of Valor Capital Group, a growth equity and venture capital investment firm focused on United States and Brazil cross border opportunities. From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Sobel was a member of the founding team and Vice President of Net2Phone, an internet telephony company. Mr. Sobel served as Vice President of Emerging Markets for NCR Corporation, responsible for the company’s financial line of business in BRICA (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Africa) from November 2009 to March 2011, and Vice President of Business Development & Government Affairs in the Asia Pacific region, based in Singapore from January 2007 to November 2009. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Sobel served as Director of Business Development of Symbol Technologies, focused on the company’s mobile computing and wireless businesses. Mr. Sobel is on the Board of Directors of Incognia (June 2019 to present), Tembici (March 2020 to present) and National Mentoring Partnership/Mentoring.org (2017 to present).  Mr. Sobel has a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University (1996).

Linda Rottenberg, 52
Director

Ms. Rottenberg has served as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Endeavor Global, Inc., leader of the global high-impact entrepreneurship movement, since 1997. She also serves as President of Endeavor Catalyst LP Funds, which had over $250 million of assets under management as of February 2021 and co-invests in Endeavor Entrepreneurs raising outside capital. Ms. Rottenberg serves on the board of Globant SA, a software developer; Olo, a digital food-ordering SaaS platform; and RTPZ, a SPAC founded by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus. She previously served as board director of Zayo Group, a leading bandwidth infrastructure company. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Ms. Rottenberg has been named among TIME’s “Innovators for the 21st century’ and U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Leaders”. In 2018, she received the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment.

Barry L. Engle, 57
Director

Mr. Engle is the founder and CEO of Qell Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: QELL), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company launched in October 2020, focused on opportunities in next generation mobility, transportation and sustainable industrial technologies.  Mr. Engle’s career has included operational, financial and managerial roles within the international automotive sector, as well as growth-oriented companies across various industries. Mr. Engle spent five years in senior executive roles at General Motors Company (“GM”).  From April 2019 through August 2020, Mr. Engle served as President of GM North America. In addition to his responsibilities for GM North America, Mr. Engle was Global Head of Chevrolet and served on the board of GM’s China joint venture.  Before this, Mr. Engle served as the President of GM International.  Mr. Engle joined GM in September 2015 as President of GM South America. Prior to joining GM, Mr. Engle spent time leading high growth, private equity and venture capital backed companies, serving as Chief Executive Officer of Agility Fuel Solutions and of European electric vehicle manufacturer Think EV. Before joining Think EV, Mr. Engle spent two years as President and CEO of New Holland Agricultural Equipment in Turin, Italy. Mr. Engle also spent a number of years with Ford Motor Company where he served as President & CEO of Ford Canada, President of Ford Brazil, and led U.S. Marketing for the Ford brand.  Mr. Engle holds a BA in Economics, with a minor in Spanish, from Brigham Young University as well as an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  Mr. Engle has also served on the National Advisory Council for the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University since 2006.

Hélio L. Magalhães, 69
Director

From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Magalhães was Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Brazil, a commercial bank. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Magalhães served as President of The Americas Global Network Services (GNS) at American Express, a multinational financial services corporation. Mr. Magalhães has served as the chairman of the board of directors of Banco do Brasil S.A. since 2019 and as chairman of the board of UBS BB Investment Bank since 2020, and has also served on the board of directors of Companhia Melhoramentos São Paulo S.A. since 2019 and Suzano S.A. since 2020. Mr. Magalhães previously served as a board member of Eletropaulo Metropolitana (2018-2019), the Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (Brazilian FDIC) (2018), IRB Brasil RE (2017-2019), VR Investments (2017-2018), Elavon do Brasil (2012-2016), and the Brazilian Federation of Banks – Febraban (2012-2017), among other companies. Mr. Magalhães has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from George Washington University (1976) and a Post-graduation in Computer Science from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio (1982).

Brian P. Brooks, 51
Director

Mr. Brooks is a globally recognized leader in financial technology and financial services. He most recently served as Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, where he was the administrator of the federal banking system and the chief executive of the 3,500-employee federal agency responsible for chartering and supervising banks comprising 70 percent of all banking activity in the United States. Mr. Brooks’s background before leading the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency included serving as Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase (2018-2020), the largest digital asset exchange in the United States; executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Fannie Mae (2014-2018), the $3.2 trillion housing finance giant; vice chairman of OneWest Bank (2011-2014), a regional bank based in Southern California; and Washington, D.C. managing partner of global law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Mr. Brooks’s board experience includes service on the boards of directors of Fannie Mae (2019-2020); Avant, Inc. (2017-2020), a major marketplace lending platform; and Spring Labs, a blockchain-enabled digital credit bureau; and numerous nonprofit boards. He has also been an advisor to and/or early stage investor in EarnUp, TextIQ, LoanSnap, and other technology companies. He holds an A.B. cum laude from Harvard University and a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago.

John G. Bruno, 57 [Appointed 10/24/22]
Director

Mr. Bruno has extensive public company global experience at scale, as well as information technology, cyber-security and technology enabled business model expertise derived from 30 years in multi-industry executive leadership roles. Mr. Bruno is currently CEO and Managing Partner of Storm Ventures, LLC, a privately held expert advisory management consulting; and early-stage venture investment firm (2022 – present) and a current member of the board of directors of Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) and chair of its compensation committee as well as a member of its technology committee. Previously, Mr. Bruno served in various capacities at Aon, plc, a publicly traded global risk management service provider, including as former executive advisor to the CEO (2021-2022), former Chief Operating Officer (2020 – 2021) and Chief Executive Officer of its Data & Analytics Services business unit (2019 – 2021); Chief Operations Officer (2017 – 2019); and Executive Vice President of Enterprise Innovation and Chief Information Officer (2014 – 2017). Mr. Bruno has also served as former Executive Vice President, Industry and Field Operations and Corporate Development, NCR Corporation, a publicly-traded technology company (2013 – 2014), where Mr. Bruno chaired the company’s Enterprise Risk Management Committee; Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NCR Corporation (2011 – 2013); Executive Vice President, Industry Solutions Group, NCR Corporation (2008 –2011); Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (2007 – 2008); and Managing Director, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (2006 – 2007), among other roles.

Ricardo Knoepfelmacher, — [Appointed 10/24/22]
Director

Mr. Knoepfelmacher is the founder of RK Partners and has 30 years of experience in operational and financial restructuring as an executive, consultant and board member. During his career, he worked at Citibank, Grupo Nutrimental and McKinsey & Co. until he founded MGDK & Associados, a restructuring and consulting firm later sold to the Monitor Group (now owned by Deloitte). During this period, he worked in several efficiency gain, investment appraisal and M&A projects in companies including Elevadores Atlas (Atlas-Schindler), Acesita and Abril. Mr. Knoepfelmacher also worked on interim management projects and, at age 30, he was Caloi’s CEO for two years in a major operational and financial restructuring. He was also a senior partner of Monitor Company from which he left to be the CEO of Pegasus Telecom, later sold to the Telemar Group (currently Oi). After the sale of Pegasus, he founded Angra Partners and worked in major projects, such as the restructuring and sale of Brasil Ferrovias and Brenco, among others. Subsequently, Mr. Knoepfelmacher was appointed CEO of Brasil Telecom, where he implemented a robust restructuring project that led to the company’s sale to the Telemar/Oi Group. He also worked on the restructuring of the EBX Group (OGX, OSX and MMX), Paranapanema, Galvão Engenharia, UTC, Estaleiro Atlântico Sul, Estaleiro Enseada, Rossi Residencial, Brasil Supply, Usina Caeté, Property Brasil and PDG, among others. He served as Board Member of NII Holdings / Nextel (2013 – 2019), Netshoes (2017 – 2019), Iguá Saneamento (2018 – 2019) and Vicunha Têxtil (2013 – 2019). He is currently a board member at Capitale / ZEG Group (since September 2020) and serves as a consulting board member at FUNCEX (Fundação Comércio Exterior) (since June 2021). He holds a Master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird School (December 1989) and graduated in Economics from the University of Brasília (UnB) (December 1987).