Santiago Ramos joined Astris Finance in 2010. Prior to Astris, Mr Ramos worked for Dexia Mexico as a project finance analyst where he was involved in the structuring and financing of several toll road projects and PPS projects (Mexican PFI) in different sectors (hospitals and water among others). In particular Santiago was the senior modeler for the 2008 Latin American Social Infrastructure Deal of the Year Ciudad Victoria Hospital and on the landmark road PPS Nuevo Necaxa-Tihuatlan. Santiago played a key role during several bidding processes and has acquired experience managing transactions from initial development until financial closing. Santiago holds an MBA from Instituto de Empresa of Madrid (IE, 2010) and obtained an Industrial Engineering Degree from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City, 2006). He is fluent in English and Spanish.
Florent Nicol
Florent joined Astris in February 2011 as Analyst. Prior to joining Astris, Florent was analyst at Veolia Water, where he worked in the Structured Finance department. At Veolia, Florent was in charge of financial modeling and contract review. In particular, Florent was the lead modeler supporting the team in charge of the acquisition by Veolia of a portfolio of European water BOT projects from United Utilities in June 2010. Florent was in charge of the review of the asset-specific financial models, and developed a proprietary consolidated portfolio model. Florent graduated from French leading engineering school Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) and holds an MS in Project and Structured Finance from that same school.
Juan Fabregas
Juan Fabregas joined Astris on November 2017 as Vice-President. He has 10 years of experience in project and corporate finance and has acted as lead arranger as well as financial advisor over the past few years. He joined Astris from BBVA, where he was a vice-president in the infrastructure and energy team. Juan spent 4 years at BBVA, including two in Chile working on Latin American projects (mainly in Chile, Perú, Colombia and Mexico), and two in Spain, where he worked intensely in the Spanish renewable market.
Prior to BBVA, Juan had spent four years at Crédit Agricole CIB in London, as an associate in the project finance team. There, Juan worked on a host of infrastructure deals in the UK, continental Europe as well as the Middle East.
Juan has a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid (2008). He is fluent in English, and Spanish and conversational in French and Italian.
Raul Santos
Raul Santos joined Astris in 2022 as Associate Director, based in the Madrid office. During his more than 12 years of experience, Raul participated in a broad range of transactions (including Project Finance, Project Bonds or Acquisition Finance) in the infrastructure and energy sectors and successfully reached more than 20 closings in 7 different jurisdictions.
Raul joins from Spanish bank BBVA, where he spent 3 years as a Director in the Structured Finance Global Energy team in Madrid leading the execution of landmark transactions in the renewable energy sector both in Europe and North America. Prior to that, Raul spent 9 years working for the concession arm of the Spanish construction group ACS in four countries (Ireland, Canada, Australia and Colombia). At ACS, Raul structured and negotiated funding solutions for several infrastructure projects as well as engaged in strategic business development, including public and private sector institutional relationships and contract negotiations.
Raúl has a BD in Business Administration from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master’s in international management from IE Business School. He is native in Spanish and fluent in English.
D. Carl Prather
D. Carl Prather joined Astris in October of 2012 as an Associate. Prior to Astris, Carl spent three and a half years working as a Senior Analyst at EMP Latin America, the manager of the Central American Mezzanine Infrastructure Fund (CAMIF), dedicated to mid market mezzanine investments in renewable power, telecommunications, transportation, agribusiness, and water and sanitation sectors throughout the Central American region. Before joining EMP Latin America, Carl held an Analyst position at the Structured and Project Finance Division of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, working on infrastructure investments in various sectors across the emerging markets. Carl's core competencies are financial structuring, debt and equity negotiations, contract review, and financial modeling.
Carl holds a BA in International Affairs and Latin American Studies from Connecticut College and an MS in International Business and Finance at Georgetown University.
Damien Dupa
Damien joined Astris in June 2014 as an Associate. Prior to joining Astris, Damien spent one year in Natixis's Project Finance group in Paris where he worked on arranging debt financing for infrastructure projects. Damien spent then two years in Mazars Paris Structured Finance team advising private and public clients on several infrastructure and PPP projects (defense, water, hospital, universities, roads and airports). Damien has been involved as lead modeler or in charge of model audit in numerous transactions.
Damien holds an M.S. in International Project Management from business school ESCP Europe and in Banking, Finance and Commodity Trading from University of Bordeaux IV. Damien is fluent in French, English and Spanish, and conversant in Portuguese.
Rafael Estrela
Rafael Estrela joined Astris in June 2013 in the São Paulo’s office. Prior to joining Astris, Rafael spent two years in Private Equity at Artesia, where he led several buy-side investment analysis of companies in a wide range of different sectors, such as consumer goods, health care services, education and agribusiness, as well as assisted senior management during several acquisition processes. Prior to his tenure with Artesia, Rafael worked at Standard & Poor’s, performing corporate credit risk analysis. At Astris, Rafael has been very active in the energy sector in Brazil: he has been involved as lead modeler and assisted throughout execution of several M&A and project finance transactions in the transmission line and power sectors. Rafael also participated in cross-border M&A transactions in the same sectors.
Rafael holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.