directors and vice presidents


Afonso Reis e Sousa
Director

Afonso Reis e Sousa joined Taylor-DeJongh in 2005 and now heads the London office. As well as advising on project financings, he has acted on a number of asset acquisitions and other M&A transactions. He specializes in the oil & gas sector and has worked on projects across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Russia and Australasia.

Prior to joining Taylor-DeJongh, Afonso had over a decade of experience in project finance, advising sponsors on the financing of major capital projects and also advising concession authorities on the evaluation of tenders. For several years, he was an independent consultant acting for various project sponsors and financial institutions, including Dresdner Kleinwort (London), where he was a Vice President-equivalent in the Natural Resources, Corporate Finance & Origination Group. He originally started his career in the Project Finance and Advisory Group at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (London), where he worked on various UK transportation projects and South Asia power projects.

Mr. Reis e Sousa holds an MSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Warwick and a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. London


John Sachs
Director

John Sachs brings more than 15 years of experience in making direct equity investments, lending and investment banking in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has led large, multi-disciplined teams in successfully originating, managing and closing transactions totaling over US$4 billion in value in the United States, Asia and the Middle East-North Africa ("MENA") region. He is focused on leading transaction teams and business development activities, with an emphasis on the energy and infrastructure sector. Current activities include advising on structuring and capital raising for a port privatization, unconventional fuel development and LNG regasification terminal.

John's experience includes raising over $400 million in private equity and sub-debt for infrastructure in MENA and Asia, acting as lead financial advisor on the successful purchase of controlling interest in the largest independent power producer (IPP) in Tunisia, the largest foreign-owned IPP operating in China and north Asia, and in the successful sale of controlling interest in a portfolio of power assets in the Philippines.

Prior to joining TDJ, Mr. Sachs served as Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC in New York and Washington, D.C. Before that, he was Associate Director with Fieldstone Private Capital Group in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mr. Sachs has an MBA with a concentration in finance from Vanderbilt University, and a BA in economics and finance from Albion College, Michigan. Washington, D.C.


Timothy Holder
Director

Timothy Holder joined TDJ in September 2007 to establish its Middle East office, based in Bahrain. He has been an investment banker for the last 18 years, during which time he has gained extensive corporate and project finance experience, much of which was in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. He joined TDJ from Business Development Asia, a primarily Asian-focused investment banking advisory business. He was also previously a director of Merchant Bridge and Close Brothers Corporate Finance, where he was responsible for each firm's MENA-based activities. Mr. Holder spent 10 years with Schroders, the UK investment bank now part of Citigroup, where he led a large number of complex corporate and project finance advisory assignments. Prior to Schroders, Mr Holder was a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand and also with Price Waterhouse, both based in London.

Since 1990, Mr. Holder has been closely involved with advising the UK Ministry of Defence on the Al Yamamah Economic Offset Programme, which seeks to encourage technology transfer to Saudi Arabia through joint ventures. He is a member of the Joint Offset Committee.

Selected advisory experience includes providing advisory services on a $290m ethyleneamines joint venture in Saudi Arabia; advising two leading US chemical companies on regional entry strategy; advising the sponsor of a worldscale petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia on attracting third party equity; providing valuation advice to two major industrial state owned companies in Bahrain; advising on securing a fully underwritten limited recourse financing facility for its acquisition and redevelopment of an oil field in Oman; and advising on the raising of a limited facility for a project in Saudi Arabia for the production of specialty chemicals.

He is an economics graduate from the University of Warwick and a qualified chartered accountant. Bahrain


Artur Davtyan
Vice President

Artur Davtyan has over 12 years of financial advisory services experience and 18 years of experience assessing project feasibility. He has a strong track record in comprehensive project management, and infrastructure project analysis for companies as well as governments, including performing financial due diligence, conducting project risk analysis, drafting information memoranda, developing and auditing complex financial models, preparing and assessing financial statements, conducting overall project management and cost analysis.

Mr. Davtyan is highly experienced in financial analysis of power projects, including fossil fuel fired power generation, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and transmission and distribution. He is currently advising the U.S. Department of Transportation on its credit program.
Prior to joining TDJ, Mr. Davtyan held various senior engineering positions with ACT Trust Construction Co. and Hydropower Institute in Armenia, where he was involved in the development of large scale energy infrastructure projects in the former Soviet Republics. As a team member, Mr. Davtyan conducted economic and technical feasibility analysis for rehabilitation and development of hydroelectric plants, tunnels, dams and roads.

Mr. Davtyan holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a B.S. in Civil and Industrial Engineering from the State Engineering University, Yerevan Armenia. Washington, D.C.


Paolo Curiel
Vice President

Paolo Curiel has 8 years experience advising sponsors, governments, and lenders on structuring and executing project/structured financings and M&A transactions, with a focus on energy and infrastructure.
His current activities include advising a government in a major privatization effort in the Middle East, assisting a sponsor in the development and financing of an LNG-fired power plant, advising an international investor on the acquisition of US oil & gas assets, and advising a lender on a PPP transaction in the United States.

Mr. Curiel's core responsibilities include advising on all transaction aspects, including performing financial due diligence, developing complex financial models, performing credit analyses, drafting valuations reports and information memoranda, and negotiating term sheets and closing documents. He has worked on projects in several emerging markets, including Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Jordan, UAE, Russia, Romania, Vietnam and Cote D'Ivoire.

Prior to joining Taylor-DeJongh in 2005, he was an investment banking associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC, where he worked on several structured/project finance and cross-border M&A transactions with a focus on power and infrastructure transactions.

Mr. Curiel has an M.A. in International Business from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and an Economics and Business degree from the Business School of the Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. Washington, D.C.


Afonso Reis e Sousa
Director

John Sachs
Director

Timothy Holder
Director

Artur Davtyan
Vice President

Paolo Curiel
Vice President