Richard Taveras
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
River Forest, IL, United States
Toptal member since May 20, 2020
Richard is a highly technical investment banking managing director (Ravinia Capital, formerly Greenhill & Co./Bank of America Merrill Lynch) with experience in over $15 billion in M&A, debt, and equity deals for multinational corporations. Before banking, he was the head of technology at a fintech startup and a forex analyst at Barclays Capital. Richard has worked at companies large and small, and joined the Toptal network to work on projects that can benefit from his well-rounded skill set.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Analysis for a Food and Beverage, Herb and Spice Manufacturer
Cash Flow Waterfall, Investor Returns, and Return Sensitivity Analysis
Strategic Analysis of Nintendo
Industry Expertise
- Banking
- Investment Banking
- Food & Beverage
- Plastic, Packaging & Containers
- Software
- Financial Software
- Freight & Logistics Services
- Financial Modeling
Other Expertise
- Corporate Finance
- Creative Problem Solving
- Cross-border M&A
- Deal Advisory
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
- Valuation
Work Experience
Managing Director
Ravinia Capital LLC
- Helped to grow the team from 5 employees to 17 employees in the 1st 18 months on the job by implementing streamlined processes and systems aligned with top-tier investment banking competitors.
- Built integration tools and transitioned the company's tech stack to be deeply integrated and AI-connected, facilitating ease of information use and garnering relevant insights.
- Led client engagements and supported business development efforts to significantly grow the number of simultaneous engagements from 2 to 10 in the first 18 months with the company.
CEO
Artico Cold Storage
- Led a team of over 75 employees serving some of the largest multinational food companies globally.
- Increased export volumes to over 40 shipping containers per week during peak season.
- Integrated with client workflows deeply by building real-time dashboards built on Snowflake database via SmartSheets - these displayed inventory and client order volumes to facilitate production planning and seamless synchronization.
Investment Banking Vice President (2019-2020), Associate (2017-2018)
Greenhill & Co.
- Leveraged native Spanish-language proficiency to drive the execution of the sale process for a world-class Colombia-based pan-Latin plastic packaging manufacturer.
- Advised a large multi-national manufacturer of industrial components in its pursuit of the $3.5 billion division of an industrial mini-conglomerate.
- Advised the world's largest metal beverage can manufacturer as its lead bank helping with M&A and other strategic growth initiatives.
Investment Banking Associate
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Advised a middle-eastern sovereign wealth fund in its acquisition of a stake in the St. Petersburg Airport in Russia.
- Worked hand-in-hand with the CEO, CFO, and global head of M&A of a FTSE 250 industrial conglomerate to analyze the divestiture of a non-core division representing c.₤500 million in revenue–assets carved out as a JV in June 2017.
- Led the analysis and execution of a long-form strategic review for the board of directors of the global leader in logistics.
Investment Banking Summer Associate
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Assisted in the early preparation process for the sale of Johnson Controls' Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) division, one of the worlds largest providers of facilities management services, which ultimately sold for $1.475 billion in September 2015.
- Assisted in the development of materials to support the dialogue between BofAML's senior leaders and our clients' management teams.
- Performed quantitative and qualitative analyses for a number of clients across the industrials, TMT (technology, media, and telecom), and M&A teams.
Swapclear Solution Specialist
LCH.Clearnet
- Designed and built an essential credit allocation/approval software component in Java, facilitating a decrease in the trade acceptance time frame by over 99%, greatly improving client certainty of acceptance.
- Led analysis of the derivatives clearing process and produced a performance dashboard, leading to the improvement in the on-time completion rate of report delivery from 85% to 100% over a 3-month measurement period.
- Facilitated the execution of projects that required technological, product, and risk knowledge.
Lead Platform Analyst and Technology Head
International Derivatives Clearing Group (Acquired by LCH.Clearnet)
- Redesigned the IDCG's software architecture to extend the company’s service offering from derivative futures to ‘over-the-counter’ derivatives, creating significant growth opportunity and positioning the company for acquisition by LCH.Clearnet.
- Led a multicultural team of ten developers across North America, Europe, and Australia to construct the company's clearing solution software as the first built-for-purpose interest rate derivatives clearing platform in the United States.
- Presented to the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission to help acquire IDCG’s clearing license.
Corporate Foreign Exchange Sales Analyst
Barclays Capital
- Performed currency risk advisory, constructing customized hedge portfolios of vanilla and exotic FX derivatives.
- Created a pricing refinement model for Barclays' electronic trading platform (BARX) to optimize profitability and maximize transaction volumes for existing clients.
- Covered a broad spectrum of multi-national corporations, executing cash flow hedging, and providing perspectives on the financial markets.
Education
Master of Business Administration Degree in General Management
IESE Business School - Barcelona, Spain
Bachelor of Science Degree in Design, Innovation, and Society
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Troy, New York, USA
Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Troy, New York, USA
Skills
Finance
Financial Modeling, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Forecasting, Valuation, Corporate Finance, Deal Advisory, Cross-border M&A, P&L Forecasting, Data Analysis, Three-statement Modeling, Revenue & Expense Projections, Private Equity, Revenue Modeling, Market Research, Accounting, Foreign Exchange (FX) Hedging, Fundraising, Cash Flow Modeling, Capital Raising
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word
Data & Analysis Software
FactSet, Financial Data, Bloomberg, SQL
Industry Expertise
Industrials, Paper & Packaging, Banking & Finance, Transportation & Shipping, Industrial & Manufacturing, Airport Transportation, Financial Services, Oil & Gas, Public Transportation, Automotive, Technology, Food & Beverage
Geographic Expertise
Latin America (LATAM)
Other
Data Analytics, Pitch Presentations, Presentations, Creative Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Financing, Industrial Equipment, Business Plan Consulting, Business Strategy, Business Analysis, Business Process Analysis, Financial Data Analytics, Business Models, Pitch Decks, Cost Analysis, Cash Flow Analysis, Executive Presentations, Financial Statements, Pitch Deck Consultant, Business Modeling, Project Management, Spanish-English Translation, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), Derivatives, Business Services, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Startups, Structuring, Business Consulting, Fintech, Python, Investment Banking, Operations Analytics, Treasury & Liquidity Management, Financial Risk Management, Foreign Exchange, Cash Flow Management, Part-time CFO, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Positioning, Qualitative Research, Competitive Strategy, Consumer Electronics, Industry Analysis, Contract Manufacturing, Financial Analysis, IRR, Sensitivity Analysis, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), CEO
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