L Catterton Latin America Acquisition Corp
MANAGEMENT & BOARD
Executive Officers
Dirk Donath, 55
Executive Chairman
He was a Senior Managing Director and Partner at Eton Park Capital Management, responsible for private equity and illiquid investment activities in emerging markets. Previously, he was a Founding Partner & Managing Director of Pegasus Capital. Before Pegasus, Mr. Donath was a Partner of McKinsey & Company where he was head of McKinsey’s Latin American Consumer Goods and Retail Practice and leader of the Latin American Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice. He left McKinsey to found Farmacity, the leading retail pharmacy chain in Argentina, where he was Founder, Chairman and served on the Board of Directors. Mr. Donath is a member of the Board of Directors and serves on the Finance Committee of the America’s Society Council of the Americas and was a Trustee on the Board of Governors of the American Ballet Theatre as well as the Board of Governors of Hillel International. Mr. Donath also serves on the Board of LAVCA (the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America), the Latin American Advisor of the Inter-American Dialogue and is a member of the Latin American Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, in addition to the Boards of various Portfolio Companies, including Despegar.com, Corp. Mr. Donath graduated cum laude with honors from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and studied international relations at Oxford University. He also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Dirk is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
Ricardo Salmon, 49
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Salmon is a former Partner of L Catterton and Co-Founder of Silver River Capital Advisors LP, a New York-based investment firm. Prior to his current role, he was a Senior Managing Director and Partner at Eton Park Capital Management. Mr. Salmon joined Eton Park prior to the fund launch in November of 2004 and he was responsible for public investments in emerging markets, as well as actively involved in private equity and illiquid investment activities. Earlier, he was a senior member of the Latin American private equity team at Deutsche Bank. Previously, he was with Bassini Playfair and Associates where he led various private equity investments in the region. He began his professional career in Mergers and Acquisition at James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. Mr. Salmon graduated from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting. He is past Chairman of the Northeast Board of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF) and a member of the DRIF National Board of Directors. Mr. Salmon also currently sits on the Board of Directors of BBB Foods Inc. (Tiendas 3B), a British Virgin Islands corporation that operates a chain of hard-discount grocery stores in Mexico, and PetLove Cayman, Ltd. He is the former Chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of ReachingU. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Huntsman Program of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Wharton Executive Board for Latin America. Mr. Salmon is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.
Rebecca Franco, 34
Controller
She is responsible for the finance, accounting, tax, and cash management activities of L Catterton’s various funds. Before joining L Catterton, she gained extensive experience in finance and accounting functions through her previous position as Senior Partnership Accountant at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she worked from October 2013 through November 2017, and additionally gained significant experience from her prior roles at Graham Capital Management and Ernst & Young. Ms. Franco graduated from Quinnipiac University with a B.A. in Accounting and is a CT Certified Public Accountant.
Board of Directors
Emilio Bassini, 71
Director Nominee
From December 1984 to December 1996, Mr. Bassini was a Managing Director and Chief International Portfolio Manager of BEA Associates, where he was responsible for all international public and private equity investment activities. He oversaw roughly $7 billion of assets under management among all the strategies comprising the non-US equity business of BEA. Prior to joining BEA Associates in June 1984, he worked at Continental Grain Company, where he was involved as Chief Financial Officer in the start-up and management of grain trading and agribusiness processing companies in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. He worked previously for two years at Price Waterhouse and Co., and qualified as a Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Bassini has served on a number of public company boards, including Television Azteca and Corporación GEO, both listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. Mr. Bassini also founded and served as President and Chief Investment Officer of ten closed end funds listed on the New York Stock Exchange which invested in Latin America and across global emerging markets. Among these funds were the Chile Fund and the first two closed end funds dedicated to investing across Latin America. He has also served on a number of private company boards in which Bassini+Co had an equity interest. He has served on the Wharton School Undergraduate Board and on the Investment Committee of the Dalton School Endowment in New York City. He currently serves on the Huntsman Program Advisory Board and the Kelly Writers House Advisory Board, both of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Bassino also serves on the board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has previously served on the board of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. Mr. Bassini earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree and a Bachelor of Arts in American Civilization degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Francisco De Narvaez, 67
Director Nominee
Among the entities owned by Grupo de Narváez are two supermarket chains in Ecuador and Uruguay. One of the chains, Tía (Ecuador), for which Mr. Narváez has served as President and Board Chairman since May 2016, has over $700 million in yearly sales, approximately 250 stores and 8,000 employees; it recently was approved by the Inter-American Developmental Bank (“IDB”) to receive a multilateral line of financing that will enhance its growth plan. The other supermarket chain, Ta-Ta (Uruguay), for which Mr. Narváez has served as President and Board Chairman since July 2016, has yearly sales around $600 million, over 170 stores and 5,000 employees from its stores operating in four different sectors: supermarkets, home appliances, apparel and pharmacies; Ta-Ta enjoys an A credit rating from Fitch and has been approved by IDB to receive debt and equity financing. Additionally, Grupo de Narváez recently added Walmart Argentina to its portfolio; the acquisition includes 90 stores employing 10,000 workers and generating yearly sales of over $1.2 billion. Mr. Narváez began his career working in Tía (Argentina), a store founded by his grandfather, and eventually became Chief Executive Officer, during which time he led the business to a successful turnaround and eventual sale. The success of this venture became a case study used by Harvard Business School. Mr. Narváez also co-founded, and has served as President since March 2017, Rapsodia, a leading apparel brand in Argentina with operations in various other countries. Most recently, Mr. Narváez became President of Dorinka (Argentina) in November 2020.
Alejandro Weinstein, 63
Director Nominee
Alejandro Weinstein is a co-founder of WM Partners, LP, a middle-market private equity firm focused on the health and wellness industry, where he has served as General Partner since 2016. He is also currently an investor and General Partner of OTV, an Israel based venture capital fund, as well as an investor and Principal of Vanterra Capital. He is a Certified Public Auditor and accountant and has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare and wellness industries, both operating and investing. He is also Board member of multiple US, European and Israeli companies. Previously, Mr. Weinstein served as Chief Executive Officer of CFR Pharmaceuticals S.A. (“CFR”) for 10 years. As such, he transformed CFR from a local Chilean pharmaceutical company into a global player in the pharma industry. Mr. Weinstein has been involved in exit transactions with an aggregate transaction volume in excess of $4 billion and over 20 material M&A transactions. Mr. Weinstein holds a Business Administration degree from the Universidad Catolica de Chile and participated in the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School.