Professional Staff

E. Per Sorensen

Mr. Sorensen is the Founder and Managing Director of Vistech Corporation.  Mr. Sorensen has directed development of international market and joint venture opportunities for industrial clients based in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States.  He has assisted a major Latin American agribusiness entrepreneur with reorganizing and preparing holdings for divestiture, has directed privatization efforts for Andean cement companies , and managed the development of financing for infrastructure projects throughout the Americas.  He has also raised financing for a number of companies in various sectors.  Mr. Sorensen is also a Managing Director at Bentley Associates  www.BentleyLP.com  an important middle-market New York - based investment banking firm where he holds the relevant securities licenses necessary for capital raising and securities transactions.

For a number of years, Mr. Sorensen was Managing Director for the Americas operations of a major European engineering and construction company.  The newly established regional group grew from US$60 million in revenues to US$430 million in two years.  The group included seven companies operating in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Ecuador, each reporting directly to Mr. Sorensen. During the three year period, Mr. Sorensen regionalized marketing, financial, and planning functions, divested noncore activities, and developed new business opportunities while concurrently financing projects.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Sorensen held Director level positions at three different E&C firms.  He was Director of Strategy for Combustion Engineering, Inc. (CE), where he had a leading role in corporate initiatives: setting strategy directions, corporate planning, business policy, and mergers and acquisitions.  CE was acquired by Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) as part of a global restructuring and consolidation of the energy industry, an event in which Mr. Sorensen took part as negotiator.

At Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Mr. Sorensen initiated and executed international ventures with Japanese and European partners in media, communications, robotics and artificial intelligence.  For Dravo Corporation he was Director Europe & Africa, responsible for engineering and fabrication subsidiaries in Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.  He negotiated the acquisition of several natural resources companies, including those which produced lime and limestone.

Earlier, Mr. Sorensen was lead mechanical engineer for Stone & Webster.  He holds a BA in Applied Science and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University, and a Masters degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management.  He holds Registered Professional Engineer certificates in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts.  He is fully bilingual Spanish-English and is conversant in Italian, French, and Portuguese.  Mr. Sorensen is registered with FINRA/SEC with relevant securities licenses.

Lincoln Y. Rathnam, Ph.D.

Managing Director of Vistech Corporation, Mr. Rathnam directs the firm's emerging markets investment strategy. In the 1990's he had a similar role as Chairman of Schooner Asset Management Co. LLC, a company which he founded.  Prior to founding Schooner, he was with Scudder, Stevens & Clark, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, which he joined as an equity analyst some years earlier, subsequently rising to the position of Chairman of the Stock Review Committee.

Mr. Rathnam's focus on emerging markets began when he founded Scudder's emerging markets fixed income group, which he led to pre-eminence, building assets under management to approximately $1.7 billion.  He established Scudder's Latin American Trust for Independent Power.  This fund, initially capitalized at $100 million, was one of the first Latin American private equity funds established following the Latin American debt crisis.  It has succesfully completed the bulk of its investment program.

Mr. Rathnam was educated at Dartmouth College, where he received an AB, and Oxford University, where he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Roberto Nevarez Ycaza

Mr. Nevarez is Vistech's Director of Business Development for Ecuador and Mexico.  He is an Ecuadorian national with over 20 years of experience in trade and diplomatic matters for the Government of Ecuador in Quito, Mexico City, and Houston.  During recent years, he has developed Vistech's agribusiness contacts throughout Latin America, and his government relations efforts have been important to Vistech's privatization work in the Andes. Mr. Nevarez attended the University of Houston in Texas.  He is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Latin American Based Members of Vistech Network

Argentina - Ricardo A. Progano

Mr. Progano is a Senior Consultant based in Buenos Aires, dedicated to business development and project execution in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.  He has over 20 years of international investment banking experience, all within Argentina.  Mr. Progano has represented both the buy and sell sides in privatization work, has arranged cross-border strategic alliances in the private sector, and has coordinated debt and equity placements through the investment firms for which he has worked.  These firms include Credit Lyonnais Argentina, Continental Bank of Argentina, and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.  More recently, he was as general manager of the investment banking division of Corporacion Metropolitana de Finanzas.   While a member of the Vistech team, he also is Partner of M&S Corporate Consultores of Buenos Aires.

Mr. Progano obtained his undergraduate degree in economics, with honors, from the Universidad Argentina de La Empresa, Buenos Aires.

Bolivia - Oscar G. Caballero V.

A consultant based in La Paz, Mr. Caballero is dedicated to business development and project execution in Bolivia and Chile.  He has over 20 years of financial advisory and project execution experience.  Mr. Caballero has represented both public sector entities and private sector buyers in privatization work and has arranged cross-border alliances in the private sector as an advisor and as an equity participant.  He was the advisor to the winning bidder (from Chile) for the ELFEC electric distribution company in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and has also advised Peruvian construction companies in the successful completion of infrastructure projects in Bolivia.

Mr. Caballero obtained his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from the New York Institute of Technology.  While a member of the team network, he is also president of Profin Consultores of La Paz.  He is bilingual in Spanish and English and is conversant in French.

Peru - Richard A. Stoddart Lindarte

Mr. Stoddart is a senior consultant based in Lima, dedicated to business development in Peru.  Mr. Stoddart has over 24  years of international investment and commercial banking experience.  He has represented both the buy and sell sides in privatization work in Venezuela and Peru, has arranged cross-border strategic alliances in the private sector, and has coordinated debt and equity placements through the financial institutions and corporations for which he has worked.  Before locating in Peru, Mr. Stoddart was a Deputy Representative at the international investment banking firm, Morgan Grenfell in Venezuela.  As a member of its privatization group, Mr. Stoddart was in charge of four privatizations for the Fondo de Inversiones de Venezuela. These included the Astinave shipyard and three hotels.

Mr. Stoddart came to Peru with Morgan Grenfell, serving as a member of the financial advisory team that advised the Peruvian government in the privatization of Minero Peru and CPT ENTEL. Subsequently, Mr. Stoddart served as advisor to Grupo Zubillaga in its purchase of a gold mine from the Government of Peru. Until recently, he worked with the Banco de Lima Sudameris as head of its energy and minerals corporate banking department.

Mr. Stoddart is bilingual English-Spanish and fluent in French. He is a Venezuelan national, and resident of Peru. He received an M.A. in Modern Languages from Oxford University in England.