ᨒApeltrys Advisors
Leadership

The people you call.

Partners lead every Apeltrys Advisors mandate personally — from first conversation to final close.

Managing Partner

Rafael Guerra

Chair & Managing Partner
Brazil
Biography

Managing Partner and founder of Apeltrys. Former M&A, corporate strategy and business recovery executive at EY-Parthenon — where he led the TMT and Aerospace & Defense M&A efforts — and at PwC Strategy&. Partner at Condere and at REACH M&A (formerly Global M&A Partners). Before founding Apeltrys, advised on transactions for global telecom carriers (>US$50bn in revenue), oil & gas majors (>US$100bn in market cap), systemic Brazilian banks (among Latin America's largest), consumer and retail groups (>US$1bn in revenue), healthtech and medical devices, global food and agribusiness, chemicals, energy and infrastructure, defense and the public sector. Court-appointed expert registered with the Brazilian federal and state judiciary.

Expertise
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Debt & Equity Capital Markets
  • Capital Raising
  • Special Situations
  • Judicial Recovery
  • Corporate Strategy
Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Healthcare
  • Industrial Goods
  • Chemicals
  • Agribusiness
  • Cybersecurity
  • Aerospace & Defense
  • Professional Services
  • Education
Senior Advisors

Leandro Gaunszer

Senior Advisor
Brazil
Biography

Leandro is a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience across telecommunications, satellite connectivity, broadband and digital infrastructure. Before joining Apeltrys, he held CEO, Vice-President and Managing Director positions for Latin America at Viasat, as well as senior positions at Telefónica, leading large-scale operations, digital transformation processes, accelerated growth, operational restructurings and strategic M&A initiatives in highly regulated and capital-intensive environments.

Expertise
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Post-Merger Integration (PMI)
  • Board Advisory
  • Corporate Strategy
Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Cybersecurity
  • Professional Services
  • Data & Analytics
  • Artificial Intelligence

Marcos Karpovas

Senior Advisor
Brazil
Biography

Founder of Ohrys Consulting, specialised in PMI and corporate strategy. Former senior executive at EY-Parthenon, focused on Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT), having worked mainly on projects for Vivo/Telefónica, Grupo Oi, Qualcomm, Nvidia and other TMT companies in Brazil and abroad. Spent 16 years at Vivo (Telefónica Brasil) across controllership, strategy, project management and the delivery of complex strategic projects (he worked directly on Vivo's M&A processes with GVT and on the acquisition of Oi Móvel). Previously a strategy consultant at Integration Consulting and Accenture.

Expertise
  • Corporate Strategy
  • Post-Merger Integration (PMI)
  • Board Advisory
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Aerospace & Defense
  • Cybersecurity
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Professional Services
  • Data & Analytics

John Mackenzie

Senior Advisor
Brazil
Biography

C-Level executive at Deel in Brazil (2018–2026), Head of Marketing and Strategy for Latin America at ADP, and Executive Marketing Manager at Nextel Telecomunicações (Claro NXT). Previously worked at Vivo/Telefónica and as Credit Card Manager at Credicard. Bachelor's in Business Administration from PUC-SP, with specialisations at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) and at PUC-SP.

Expertise
  • Sales & Marketing Strategy
  • Global Expansion Strategy
  • Corporate Strategy
Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Professional Services

Fernando Trota

Senior Advisor
Brazil
Biography

CEO and founder of Triven, a pioneer in CFO-as-a-Service in Brazil. One of the leading executives specialised in professional services, having advised hundreds of companies at Triven.

Expertise
  • CFO Advisory
  • Corporate Strategy
  • Board Advisory
Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Professional Services
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & Analytics
Sector Advisors

José Emídio Júnior

Sector Advisor
Brazil
Biography

Sector advisor to Apeltrys focused on Telecommunications and Technology.

Sectors
  • Technology, Media & Telecom

Rodolfo Guglielmi

Sector Advisor
Brazil
Biography

Sector advisor to Apeltrys focused on Beauty & Wellness.

Sectors
  • Beauty & Wellness
Beyond leadership

Apeltrys operates as part of an integrated network of more than 20 trusted local partners across multiple jurisdictions — regulatory advisors, law firms, accounting practices and financial BPO providers — complemented by selective collaborations with research portals, strategy boutiques and market builders on targeted studies, data construction and sector intelligence. The result is on-the-ground execution capacity with the discretion of a senior partner-led house.

Regulatory & compliance counsel

Local regulatory specialists across the Americas, EMEA and APAC supporting cross-border filings and licensing.

Law firms

Jurisdiction-specific transactional, tax and dispute counsel mobilised per mandate.

Accounting & audit

Statutory accounting, financial due diligence and tax structuring partners with multi-GAAP coverage.

Financial BPO

Outsourced controllership, FP&A and back-office capacity for portfolio companies and PMI workstreams.

Research & data partners

Selective collaborations with sector portals and data providers on industry studies and proprietary datasets.

Strategy collaborators

Boutique strategy houses and operating advisors engaged on targeted commercial and operational diligence.