“Connecting capital with opportunity through disciplined analysis, strategic thinking, and purposeful leadership.”

Thiago Neme Silva, CFA, is a finance executive, strategic advisor, and capital markets professional with 12 years of experience spanning corporate finance, structured finance, capital raising, investments, and financial leadership across Latin America, the United States, and other emerging markets. His career has been shaped by a willingness to take on complex financial challenges where disciplined analysis, sound judgment, and thoughtful execution can create meaningful business outcomes. From leading finance organizations and navigating a company through the COVID 19 crisis to structuring securitizations and raising institutional capital, Thiago has developed a perspective that connects financial strategy with the practical realities of operating and growing a business.

Today, Thiago works as an Independent Financial Consultant in Washington, DC, advising organizations across finance, infrastructure, hospitality, and investment. His engagements include advising a Colorado based geothermal developer on financial modeling and fundraising strategy for a $1.6 billion project combining a power plant and data center. He also serves as part time CFO of Ducadu, a restaurant business where he leads four direct reports and has automated workflows, developed dashboards and databases, strengthened internal controls, and designed the company’s investor engagement strategy. In addition, he advises Advantary Capital’s syndication team on Latin American and financial inclusion transactions and has designed and delivered finance training for TikTok LATAM’s commercial team.

Prior to establishing his independent advisory practice, Thiago served with Delphos International, an advisory firm that has mobilized more than $20 billion for companies operating in emerging markets. Beginning as a Financial Consultant and advancing to Capital Raising Vice President, he pitched and negotiated more than $500 million in debt, mezzanine, and equity opportunities with multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, impact investors, and commercial lenders. His mandates crossed infrastructure, renewable energy, agribusiness, financial services, and real estate, providing him with broad exposure to the capital requirements and risk considerations of organizations operating in diverse markets.

At Delphos, Thiago became particularly involved in the analytical work required to determine whether opportunities were financially viable and appropriately structured. He led first stage screening of mandates, reviewing historical financial performance, testing projections against established track records, benchmarking peers, and delivering independent risk opinions. For portfolio transactions, he evaluated vintages, recovery ratios, loss given default, concentrations, waterfalls, and stress scenarios. His assignments included work involving a bank in Mongolia, a Brazilian consumer loan portfolio, green homes across four African countries, and the restructuring of an Egyptian fintech. Alongside his transaction responsibilities, he supervised and mentored three associates within a multinational team.

Thiago’s executive leadership experience was further developed as Chief Financial Officer of Creditú, part of AVLA Group, a mortgage and SME lender that had originated more than $450 million in loans. As CFO, he led a multinational finance organization spanning Chile, Brazil, and Peru, with responsibilities across capital markets, financial planning and analysis, accounting, and treasury. During his tenure, the company reached break even for the first time in its history. Thiago also originated and led approval of a $26 million FMO facility supporting SME lending in Peru, closed a $2 million bridge line with LarrainVial, and implemented currency hedging covering 95 percent of foreign exchange exposure across cross border funding structures.

His responsibilities at Creditú extended well beyond traditional finance leadership. Thiago led the separation of the finance function from the AVLA holding company, establishing independent processes, reporting systems, and investment oversight. He managed a $180 million asset backed securities portfolio, overseeing covenant compliance, waivers, and early warning indicators, while also redesigning the recovery process in Brazil. The experience strengthened his ability to combine executive financial leadership with the operational discipline required to build scalable financial infrastructure and manage institutional capital responsibly.

Before becoming CFO, Thiago held progressively senior investment and capital markets positions within AVLA, serving as Vice President of Capital Markets and later Head of Investments and Capital Markets. In these roles, he oversaw more than $280 million in portfolios, including $180 million held through off balance sheet asset backed securities vehicles and the regulated investment portfolios of four insurance companies. His work required direct interaction with local insurance regulators as well as sophisticated institutional counterparties. He structured a $50 million revolving warehouse line with IDB Invest for affordable housing in Chile and led the associated due diligence and legal coordination.

Thiago also developed innovative structured finance solutions designed to expand access to housing and credit. He structured an approximately $17 million CRI securitizing low income down payment receivables for MRV with an insured mezzanine tranche and underwrote the associated risk taken by the group’s insurer. He also structured the first CRI in Brazil issued in tranches on different dates, supporting a $6 million pilot involving 30 year mortgages for low income borrowers. His responsibilities included presenting credit assessments to the investment committee and engaging S&P and AM Best regarding the rating of a proposed $100 million insured mortgage securitization in Chile.

An important chapter in Thiago’s development as a finance leader came at Cultura Inglesa, a private equity backed education company following a leveraged buyout. Joining initially as a Senior Strategic Planning Analyst, he advanced through Finance Coordinator and Finance Manager roles before being appointed CFO at age 29. His appointment came only weeks before the COVID 19 crisis, immediately placing him in an environment requiring decisive financial leadership. He led liquidity management, covenant waivers, and debt renegotiations while overseeing FP&A, treasury, tax, accounting, and procurement through a team of five direct and 20 indirect reports.

During his tenure at Cultura Inglesa, Thiago led financial due diligence and the separation process that enabled the eventual sale of the company’s core business to its primary competitor. He executed the company’s first bond issuance, a BRL 120 million transaction, presenting the credit case to major financial institutions including Itaú, Santander, Bradesco, BBM, and BNDES. He also designed and executed a fiscal restructuring projected to generate BRL 100 million in cash benefits over 10 years. His transaction experience included modeling, valuing, negotiating, and closing three M&A transactions, as well as leading a goodwill valuation that received auditor approval.

Earlier in his career, Thiago worked as a Financial Analyst with Americas Trading Group, where he helped build the financial model for the depositary and clearing house of a planned new Brazilian stock exchange. He also contributed to license filings with the Central Bank of Brazil and the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission. In another assignment, he analyzed a defaulted real estate development facility and proposed a restructuring that redesigned disbursement conditions and risk mitigants. His early exposure to investment markets began with an internship as an Investment Advisor at Ágora Corretora, establishing a foundation for the capital markets expertise that would become central to his career.

Thiago complements his professional experience with a rigorous academic and technical foundation. He is a CFA Charterholder, having passed Levels I, II, and III on his first attempt in consecutive sittings. He earned a Master of Science in Applied Finance from The George Washington University with a 4.0 GPA, graduating at the top of his class and receiving the Academic Excellence Award while earning membership in Beta Gamma Sigma. He previously earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and completed an exchange semester at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. His credentials also include the FINRA Securities Industry Essentials examination.

Governance and investing have remained meaningful extensions of Thiago’s finance career. Since 2018, he has served as a Fiscal Council Member for Parceiros da Educação RJ, an education nonprofit, providing him with longstanding exposure to financial oversight and organizational governance. He is also an angel investor in Ducadu, where his investment generated a 150 percent return within 12 months before his relationship with the business expanded into active financial leadership. These experiences reinforce his understanding that effective financial stewardship requires more than technical expertise. It also requires accountability, independent judgment, thoughtful questioning, and an appreciation for the long term interests of an organization and its stakeholders.

Thiago brings a distinctly international perspective to leadership. A native Portuguese speaker who is also fluent in English and Spanish, he has worked across the United States and Latin America while evaluating and structuring opportunities across a broader range of emerging markets. His experience with institutional investors, development finance organizations, commercial lenders, regulators, private equity backed companies, entrepreneurs, and multinational teams enables him to navigate different business cultures and stakeholder priorities with confidence. His technical toolkit, including Bloomberg, FactSet, Excel and VBA, Python, SQL, and R, further supports an analytical approach grounded in data and rigorous financial evaluation.

As Thiago continues expanding his advisory and governance activities, he brings a valuable combination of CFO experience, capital markets knowledge, structured finance expertise, investment judgment, and hands on transaction execution. He has led organizations through crisis, built independent finance functions, managed regulated and off balance sheet portfolios, structured institutional facilities, executed M&A and bond transactions, and evaluated investments across multiple industries and geographies. His career reflects a finance leader who is comfortable moving between detailed financial analysis and executive level strategic decisions while remaining focused on the underlying business realities that ultimately determine whether a strategy succeeds.

At the center of Thiago’s professional philosophy is the belief that finance should enable organizations to make better decisions, allocate capital responsibly, manage risk intelligently, and pursue opportunities with discipline. Whether working with a growth stage business, institutional investor, infrastructure developer, multinational lender, or nonprofit organization, he brings intellectual rigor, curiosity, accountability, and an international perspective to the conversation. For boards and advisory organizations, Thiago offers the perspective of an executive who understands both sides of capital: how organizations raise and deploy it, and how investors and lenders evaluate the risks and opportunities behind it.

Character: Thiago demonstrates character through disciplined financial stewardship, accountability, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to assume responsibility during consequential moments, including organizational restructurings and the COVID 19 crisis. His continued nonprofit governance service and work supporting financial inclusion initiatives further reflect a professional outlook grounded in responsibility and meaningful impact.

Knowledge: Thiago brings deep knowledge across corporate finance, structured finance, capital markets, securitization, M&A, financial planning, treasury, risk assessment, portfolio management, and fundraising. His CFA Charter, graduate finance education, international experience, and hands on leadership of complex transactions allow him to evaluate financial decisions from the perspectives of executives, investors, lenders, and regulators.

Strategic: Thiago connects detailed financial analysis with broader organizational objectives, enabling him to evaluate not simply whether a transaction can be completed, but how its structure supports long term business priorities. His experience navigating liquidity crises, restructuring organizations, building finance functions, raising institutional capital, and evaluating investments across emerging markets demonstrates a disciplined approach to balancing opportunity, risk, and execution.

Communication: Thiago communicates effectively across cultures, industries, and stakeholder groups, supported by fluency in Portuguese, English, and Spanish and extensive experience working with executives, investors, lenders, regulators, advisors, and multinational teams. His ability to present complex financial concepts clearly is further demonstrated through investment committee presentations, institutional negotiations, team leadership, and finance training delivered to commercial professionals.