Brazilian infrastructure investor Invepar named Erik Breyer as its new chief executive officer, replacing Gustavo Nunes da Silva Rocha, who led the company from 2010. The change came after Rocha provided testimony to Brazil’s federal police in April as part of the Lava Jato corruption investigation. He was asked about matters relating to engineering firm OAS, which owns 24.4% of Invepar, but not about Invepar’s activities, the company said at the time.
Brazilian airline Gol, which is going through debt renegotiations, brought back Richard Lark as chief financial officer. Lark held the post from 2003 to 2008, helping to lead the company when Gol went public in 2004. Less than a month after returning to his old job, Lark said the airline would reduce debt by 3.8 billion reais ($1.18 billion) by the end of the year. At Gol’s frequent flyer program, Smiles, CEO Leonel Andrade assumed the roles of CFO and investor relations director, following the departure of Flávio Jardim Vargas.
In Mexico, state-owned Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) appointed Jaime Hernández as general director. Hernández replaced Enrique Ochoa, who left CFE to become head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Mexican oil company Pemex named three new directors – Juan Lozano at Pemex Fertilizers, Cutberto Azuara at Industrial Transformation and Guadalupe Merino as deputy director of strategic planning and regulatory analysis.
At the Mexican division of German carmaker Daimler, Víctor Calderón replaced Tobias Waldeck as CEO in August. General Motors Financial Mexico also got a new CEO, with Frederick Livingood stepping in for Rodrigo Lopes.
Chilean electricity company AES Gener selected Luis Felipe Cerón as CEO and Vicente Giorgio as general manager, while Chilean brokerage services firm Tanner named Julián Rodríguez to replace Daniela Zamorano as its CEO. Chilean retailer appointed Hugo Ovando as its CEO.
In Central America, Ernesto Castegnaro stepped down as CEO of BAC Credomatic, replaced by Rodolfo Tabash.
Banking changes
Udi Margulies, once HSBC’s co-head of global banking in Brazil, became the head of investment banking for Latin America at Scotiabank, a new position at the Canadian bank. MBA Lazard selected José Luis Jeria as the head of investment banking in Chile. He joined the US investment bank from Itaú BBA, where he directed the Brazilian bank’s Chilean operations.
Ricardo Navarro left Itaú BBA’s debt capital markets team in July and joined the Miami-based asset management firm Noctua Partners in August to manage an emerging markets fund. Andres de Goyeneche, who was the chief country officer for Deutsche Bank in Chile, became the regional director for Chile, Peru and Uruguay for the US investment management firm BlackRock. Juan Pablo Romero took over for Goyeneche at Deutsche Bank Chile. Miami-based investment bank AdCap selected Roberto Pinilla to lead its Colombian operations.
MUFG picked Harvy Colli to oversee its transaction banking business in Latin America. Colli’s new role also includes treasury management, trade finance and global trust services. Colli came to MUFG from JPMorgan, where he worked in the treasury services business in Brazil. US investment bank Greenhill named Mario Orozco as a managing director for Latin America, excluding Brazil. LF