Claudio Aguirre

Claudio Aguirre has been one of the highest executives of Merrill Lynch in Europe, occupying various leadership roles in the Investment Banking and Private Wealth Management. He was President and top executive of Investment Banking division for Europe, Middle East and Africa, between 1999 and 2003, as well as member of the Global Executive Committee.

Claudio was Senior Banker to some of the leading international Private Equity firms. Two years before, Claudio Aguirre was Head of Global Private Wealth Services in Europe and member of the Executive Committee for Europe. Prior to this role in Private Wealth Services, he was Head of Merril Lynch for Spain and in this role responsible for the acquisition of Sociedad de Valores y Bolsa FG as well as Country Manager for Merril Lynch in Iberia.

Before joining Merrill Lynch, Claudio was Head of Investment Banking for Spain and Portugal at Goldman Sachs, where he remained from1987 to 1994. While at Goldman Sachs Claudio was responsible for raising a €75m Private Equity fund in Spain. Claudio began his professional career at Chase Manhattan Bank in Spain where he worked from 1980 to 1987 becoming Managing Director.

Claudio Aguirre holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administrations from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa de Madrid, he is an AMP Graduate of Harvard Business School. He is a Registered Representative in the Financial Services Authority "FSA" of the United Kingdom, and Series 7 and Series 63 Representative of the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD") in New  York. Claudio is currently Member of the International Advisory Board of Goldman Sachs´s & Co and Board Member of Mercapital and Grupo Vocento.

Mariano Olaso

Mariano Olaso-Yohn was founding partner of Vista Capital de Expansión, S.A. ("Vista"), founded in 1989. Vista is a Private Equity firm owned by Banco Santander and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Between 1989 and 1993, Charterhouse, a pioneer Private Equity firm in the UK was Banco Santander's partner in Vista.

Vista is one of the oldest Private Equity firms in Spain and enjoys one of the best track records in the sector, with succesful investments, such as Superdiplo, Parques Reunidos, Vilesa and Estacionamientos Subterráneos, among others. Mariano actively participated in 14 out of the 17 investments carried out by Vista, amongst them, three in the United Kingdom. He was, in addition, on behalf of Vista, member of the Board of Directors in eight companies and CEO in one of them.

During this time at Vista, Mariano developed fluid relationships with the leading Private Equity firms of the sector. Before founding Vista and from 1982, Mariano worked for Chase Manhattan Bank both in Madrid and in London, at the Investment Banking and Corporate division. Mariano holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Universidad Comercial de Deusto (Bilbao).

José Luis Molina

José Luis Molina worked for Lehman Brothers for approximately 10 years, first in New York and subsequently in London, until becoming partner in Altamar. He was a Senior Vice President of Lehman Brothers, and one of the people responsible in Europe for the origin and execution of direct investments in Buyouts on behalf of Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Fund. This fund is an institutional Private Equity fund managed by Lehman Brothers, dedicated, since the late 1980's (through different funds), to Buyout investments both in the US and in Europe.

The Merchant Banking group of Lehman Brothers is one of the pioneers in the Buyout sector and managed from the end of the 80`s until 2004 roughly 500 million (exclusively in  Buyouts), completing 27 transactions in which a yield of 36.8% was obtained(a 2.4 multiple on invested capital ). José Luis was responsible for transactions of a total value of around €570m (€570m of invested equity ), amongst which stand out the investment in Eutelsat (France), Inmarsat (UK), New Skies (Holland), Intelsat (USA.) and ITP (Spain).

Prior to joining the Private Equity team at Lehman Brothers, José Luis worked in the Investment Banking division as member of the Global Technology Group, specialising in financial consultancy, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and capital raising transactions in the technology sector, first in New York and subsequently in London. Before working in Lehman Brothers, José Luis worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions team at Credit Lyonnais/Iberagentes Bolsa in Madrid betweeb 1991 and 1993.

José Luis holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration from C.U.N.E.F. (Madrid 1985-1990) and completed a MBA with honours from the Columbia University (New York 1993-1995). José Luis is a Registered  Representative in the Financial Services Authority "FSA" of the United Kingdom in 1997, and as Series 7 and Series 63 Representative of the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD") in New York in 1995.