Officers and Directors

Virgilio Deloy Capobianco Gibbon is our Chief Executive Officer, a position he has held since June 2019. He has been the Chief Executive Officer of Afya Brazil since August 2016. Prior to joining us, he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Estácio Participação S.A., from March 2010 to March 2012, and March 2012 to June 2016, respectively. He was also Executive Director of Business Consulting and Education Industry at TOTVS Consulting from October 2007 to December 2009, and Senior Manager of Business Consulting at Accenture from 2000 to 2007. He holds a degree in Economics from PUC-RJ. He is currently a board member of EABH – Escola Americana of Belo Horizonte.

Lélio de Souza Junior has 22 years of experience in tech companies. Before joining Afya, he served as CEO for Intelie for 5 years, where he had the chance to support the internationalization of the company, the acquisition process by RigNet (later on acquired by Viasat, NASDAQ: VSAT) and to experience a very well succeeded growth history. Prior to that, Lelio served as a Corporate Officer at TOTVS from 2008 – 2016 and also as Senior Manager in Accenture from 2000-2008. Lelio holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and executive programs degrees from University of Wharton, Pennsylvania, USA and Insper, São Paulo, Brazil.

Luis André Blanco is our Chief Financial Officer, a position he has held since April 2020. Prior to joining us, he served as CFO for OdontoPrev for 10 years, where he oversaw corporate finance – treasury, financial planning, M&A, tax and accounting – operations, legal and compliance. Prior to that, Luis served as a Financial Officer at Vivo S.A from 2003 to 2009 and also as CFO at Tele Centro – Oeste Celular Participações from 2000 to 2003. Luis holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and an executive program degree from University of Westminster, London, England.

Nicolau Carvalho Esteves is the Chairman of our board of directors, a position he has held since June 2019. He is a qualified orthopedist and has over 25 years of experience in the education industry. He has been the Chairman of Afya Brazil since August 2016. He is the founding shareholder of the following companies, for which he served as Chief Executive Officer for the periods indicated (i) ITPAC – Instituto Tocantinense Presidente Antônio Carlos S.A. (1999-2016); (ii) ITPAC Porto Nacional – Instituto Tocantinense Presidente Antônio Carlos Porto S.A. (2008-2016); (iii) IPTAN – Instituto de Ensino Superior Presidente Tancredo de Almeida Neves S.A. (2003-2016) and (iv) Instituto de Educação Superior do Vale do Parnaíba S.A. (2016-2018). He holds a Medicine degree from Faculdade de Medicina de Barbacena, a master’s degree in Business Administration from FGV, a master’s degree in Corporate Finance from Fundação Dom Cabral, a master’s degree in Business Administration from FEAD and a Business Administration degree from AIEC.

Kay Krafft is the founding CEO of Bertelsmann Education Group. Until 2014, he was Chief Investment Officer of music rights management company BMG, building up the company from a start-up to a major player in the music industry through acquisitions as well as the establishment of an international presence. Before joining BMG’s Executive Board, he served as EVP and global head of M&A at Bertelsmann while implementing major portfolio adjustments during this time. Prior to joining Bertelsmann, Kay Krafft was a partner at professional services firm Deloitte.

Shobhna Mohn is Chief Strategy Officer at Bertelsmann Investments. Currently, Shobhna is responsible for the strategic design and execution of Bertelsmann’s global VC investment funds in China, India, Brazil, US/Europe as well as investments in Africa and Southeast Asia. Her focus is on governance, insights, knowledge exchange, identification and steering of long-term strategic holdings. Main target areas of focus are on growth platforms such as e-commerce services, fintech, logistics, education and health. As member of the Investment Committees that evaluate and approve Bertelsmann’s VC investment targets, she has played a key role in the VC investments of over Euro 1.4 billion since 2006 in more than 380 Investments with a current global portfolio of 270 investments. Shobhna is a member of the Bertelsmann Group Management Committee since 2019. She has been at Bertelsmann since 1996 in various roles including Growth Regions Strategy, Investor Relations, and Venture Capital. She holds Bachelors (B.A.) and Masters degrees (both M.A. and M.Phil) in Mathematics from the Delhi University in India, and a M.Phil degree in Operations Research/Management Science from Columbia Business School in New York, USA.

Mr. Benedikt Dalkmann is Chief Financial Officer of Bertelsmann Education Group. He has played a formative role in developing the Group since its foundation in 2015, including the expansion of Relias into a major player in US healthcare education through acquisitions, as well as the establishment of an international presence. Before joining the Education Group, Benedikt worked as Director of Strategy & Investments at Bertelsmann Group. Other experiences include a period in Venture Capital at Holtzbrinck, and in management consulting.

Mr. Emilio is a Managing Director at Bertelsmann Brazil Investments (BBI) and Head of the Bertelsmann Corporate Center in Brazil, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, a relevant investor in education in the world. Mr. Emilio joined Bertelsmann in 2012, where he has been responsible for Bertelsmann’s strategy for new businesses in Brazil as well as for finding business opportunities in the Education sector. He is also the Chairman of the Board at Afferolab and a board member at Companhia das Letras and Intervalor. Before working at Bertelsmann, he was a consultant working across multiple industries during his tenures at Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co. and Arthur Andersen. Mr. Emilio holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Unicamp, a master’s degree in Economics from USP, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University. During his Ph.D. at Boston University his research focused on Economics of Education and Economic Theory.

Renato Tavares Esteves is a member of our board of directors, a position he has held since June 2019. He has been a member of the board of directors of Afya Brazil since August 2016. He has been an executive officer of Afya Brazil and of the following companies: (i) Instituto de Educação Superior do Vale do Parnaíba S.A., UNIVAÇO – União Educacional do Vale do Aço S.A., IPTAN – Instituto de Ensino Superior Presidente Tancredo de Almeida Neves S.A., ITPAC – Instituto Tocantinense Presidente Antônio Carlos S.A. and Instituto de Ensino Superior do Piauí S.A., all since 2018, and (ii) ITPAC Porto Nacional – Instituto Tocantinense Presidente Antônio Carlos Porto S.A., from 2017 to 2018. He holds a Medicine degree from Faculdade de Medicina de Barbacena, and master’s degrees in Business Administration and Corporate Finance from FGV.

Maria Tereza Azevedo joined Softbank LatAm fund in 2021 as Investment Director leading the Education industry. Prior to joining Softbank, she was an Executive Director at Santander and Director at UBS Investment Bank leading the TMT strategy and LatAm Education and the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications teams, respectively. She has extensive experience in helping LatAm companies access the equity capital markets and holds a master’s degree in Corporate Finance and a bachelor’s degree in Economics Science from IBMEC. Maria Tereza also serves as a board member of Descomplica and UOL EdTech.

João Paulo Seibel de Faria has more than 25 years of experience in companies like Arthur Andersen S/C, Ericsson Telecomunicações and Microsoft. In this last one he spent 18 years in different leadership roles in Latin America and the US in Sales, Marketing and in Finance (last role as CFO in Brazil). Since October 2019 he has been working as Latin America CFO for Didi Chuxing (China Giant Mobility Company that owns 99 Tecnologia in Brazil).
Mr. Faria holds a bachelor degree in Business from FAAP and an Executive MBA from IBMEC Business School (both in Sao Paulo). Additionally he holds several executive sessions in leadership, strategy and global business environment from Fundação Dom Cabral, INSEAD and Devry.

Vanessa Claro Lopes is an independent member of our board of directors and an independent member of our audit and ethics committee, positions she has held since July 2019. She is currently an independent member of the board of directors of Lojas Americanas S/A, member of the fiscal councils of Cosan S.A., Cosan Logística SA and Comgas S.A., the chairperson of the audit committee at Tegma Logistica S.A., a member of the audit committee at Embraer S.A. and Lojas Americanas S/A . She was formerly the chairperson of the fiscal council of Via Varejo S.A. from 2014 to 2018, a member of the fiscal council of Terra Santa Agro S.A. from 2016 to 2018, a member of the fiscal council of Gerdau S.A from 2016 to 2017 and a member of the fiscal councils of Estácio Participações S.A. and Renova Energia S.A. from 2017 to 2019. With over 25 years’ experience in corporate governance and internal and external audits of large private and listed companies, she started her career in 1995 at PricewaterhouseCoopers in advisory services and was responsible for the creation of the revenue assurance specialists department in Brazil for the telecoms sector. She was an executive officer and the head of the internal accounting department of TAM S.A. from 2010 to 2014, an executive officer and the head of the internal accounting department of Globex Utilidades S.A. (Grupo Pão de Açúcar) from 2004 to 2010 and a coordinator and the head of the accounting department of Grupo Telefonica from 2000 to 2004. She holds an MBA from EAESP/FGV, a master’s degree in management systems from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), a master’s degree in computer networks from São Judas University, an accounting degree from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and a systems analysis degree from FATEC/BS. She was formerly a professor of audit systems and information security at Objetivo University from 1997 to 1998.

Mr. Flavio is recognized by his unquestionable contribution to the development of the Digital Market in Brazil. For the past 20 years he has been the Executive in charge in 3 out of the 5 top E-commerce companies in Brazil. In the case of Walmart.com he has been the founder and helped to build a billion dollar online business from scratch. For Cnova he has commanded a massive turnaround and contributed to the integration of the company into Via Varejo, the largest Omnichannel retailer in Brazil in which Flavio ended up becoming the CEO being accountable for a USD 8 Billion in revenues, 50.000 employees, 1.000 stores and 3 e-commerce sites. In his ventures outside of the Retail space, he has played a key role in the conception and construction of the first digital bank in Brazil, Banco Original. In the recent years he has become a professional investor and advisor in the tech startups ecosystem and has already two Centaurs (Companies with valuation above USD 100 Million) in his portfolio. Acknowledged by being a Digital Transformation practitioner, Flavio has been acting as advisor and board member for large corporations form various sectors helping them to find their own ways to continue succeeding in this new market dynamic. Currently he is the partner of 500 Startups in Brazil, in charge of building and growing the fund operations in the country.

Mr. de Paula has more than 35 years of experience in HR in the Brazilian corporate world, holding positions such as Senior HR Director of Grupo Pão de Açucar, HR Vice President of Estacio Participações, Head of Organization Development at Votorantim Cimentos and HR of Grupo Gerdau.  He holds an MBA degree from USP and a post-grad degree in HR from PUCRS.