Scott Sobel (NY)

Scott Sobel, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Valor Capital Group, was part of the founding team of the pioneer Internet Telephony company Net2Phone; Scott helped take the company from a piece of software that was first to bridge the PC and the Public Switch Telephony Network to acquiring millions of users, generating over $200M in revenue, an IPO (1999) and the strategic sale of the company to AT&T for $1.4 Billion (2000). Scott went on to hold executives positions in Symbol Technologies working with the Mobile Computing and Wireless Divisions and NCR Corporation based in Singapore responsible for Corporate Development and later the P&L for the Financial Line of Business in the Emerging Markets. Scott was fortunate to be in a position to bring his skill sets, passions, and experiences to support other entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Brazil reach their visions. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University.

• Scott has primarly lived and worked in the emerging markets (China, India, and Brazil) for the past decade, who is a passionate surfer and practices Jiu Jitsu.

Willem Kooyker

Willem Kooyker is Chairman of Blenheim Capital Management and has been a prominent participant in the international commodities business for over 35 years. Mr. Kooyker began his trading career in 1964 with Internatio-Muller in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where eventually he became a managing director of the International Trading Group. He stayed in this position until 1981, when he joined Commodities Corporation, Princeton New Jersey, where he became President. In October 1984, Mr. Kooyker started a new company, Tricon Holding Company, Ltd., which was a trading and consulting company in the futures as well as the physicals markets predominantly directed towards energy and industrial commodities. In January 1989, Mr. Kooyker founded Blenheim. Concurrent, but separate from Blenheim, Mr. Kooyker was a major shareholder of Derivatives Portfolio Management, L.L.C. (DPM). Mr. Kooyker received a B.A. in Economics from Baruch College in New York and an MBA in International Finance and Economics from New York University.

Amb. Clifford Sobel (NY)

Ambassador Clifford Sobel is a Senior Partner of Valor Capital Group. Ambassador Clifford Sobel served as Ambassador to the Netherlands and Brazil, spanning both the Bush and Obama Administrations. Today he is Managing Partner of Valor Capital Group, which is a diversified investment group investing in Brazil. He is also a Partner in Related Brazil, a mixed-use developer in Brazil, and he is a Partner and Board Member of Contagalo, a diversified agriculture group. He has served on Advisory Boards to the American Military Commander of Europe and NATo, as well as the Command for American Forces for Central and South America. He is on the Board of Directors for Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE) (DO), and the Boards of Council of American Ambassadors, Council of the Americas, and Christie’s Advisory Board for the Americas. He serves on the Board of Wenzhou Kean University based in Zhejiang Province, China, one of the first universities to grant degrees in English in Accounting, Finance, English and Computer Science. He is also on the Advisory Board to Fundação Dom Cabral Brazil (FDC), which is a leading school for Executive Education in Brazil. Ambassador Sobel has received award recognition for contributions to bilateral relations from Brazil’s Ministry of Defense, as well as the State Governments of Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Sergipe.

• Cliff enjoys spending time with his 8 grand children, loves to ski and is an avid collector of Brazilian and American abstract expressionist; Vick Muniz, Antoni Giez, and Tunga are among his favorites.

Raymond G. Chambers (NY)

Raymond G. Chambers is a philanthropist and humanitarian who has directed most of his efforts towards helping children. He is the founding Chairman of the Points of Light Foundation and co-founder, with Colin Powell, of America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth. He also co-founded the National Mentoring Partnership and the Millennium Promise Alliance. Mr. Chambers is the co-founder of Malaria No More, with Peter Chernin. He is also the Founding Chairman of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and is the former Chairman of Wesray Capital Corporation, which he co-founded with William E. Simon. In March 2013, Mr. Chambers was appointed Special Envoy for Financing of the Health Related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He is the first person to hold the newly created position. At Harvard, Mr. Chambers is a member of the HSPH Health Communication Advisory Board, and Board co-chair of Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe.

Gabriel Jaramillo

Gabriel Jaramillo has 33 years of experience in the financial sector, particularly in Latin America. Mr. Jaramillo joined Grupo Santander in 1996 as a Managing Director. At that time, he worked on bank acquisitions in several countries in Latin America. From 1997 to 1999, he served as President of Banco Santander Colombia. From September to March 2008, he was president of Banco Santander (Brazil). He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Banco Santander (Brazil). Through various acquisitions and organic growth, he built a franchise where Santander became the second largest private financial intuition in Brazil. In 2008, he became an advisor to the Chairman of Grupo Santander. Mr. Gabriel Jaramillo served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Santander Holdings USA, Inc. (Sovereign Bancorp Inc.) from 2009 through 2011, when Jorge Morán was named Chief Executive of Sovereign Bank and Country Head of Santander businesses in the United States.  Gabriel Jaramillo continues as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sovereign and Santander Holdings USA, Inc.

Antoine Colaço (SF)

Antoine Colaço is a Partner at Valor Capital Group. Prior to joining Valor, Mr. Colaço was at Google for 9 years serving in a wide range of capacities. He was most recently COO of Global Partnerships, supporting all of Google’s partnerships. Previously, he established Google’s India presence by founding its operations in Hyderabad and grew its Latin American presence by launching offices and online AdWords operations in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. More recently, he headed the Reseller Channel for Asia-Pacific and LATAM and was the COO for the APAC and LATAM regions.

Prior to joining Google, Mr. Colaço was in Business Development for Yahoo! Finance. Antoine also held roles at Goldman Sachs, Development Bank of Singapore, and CSC Healthcare. Mr. Colaço received his BSE, cum laude, from Princeton University, in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a certificate in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School. He also has an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Michael Nicklas (São Paulo / Rio)

Mr. Nicklas is a Partner at Valor Capital Group and has been involved with Internet startups for the last 15 years as an entrepreneur, executive and investor. He has led key Internet initiatives at Fortune 500 companies including the digital video group at Viacom and the online group at Univision; launched two startups, The Gryphon Group and Thirst, in NYC’s Silicon Alley; and been active as both an angel and VC investor in Latin America. Prior to joining Valor Capital Group, Mr. Nicklas was Managing Director for Ideiasnet, SA, a publicly-traded technology holding and venture capital group based in Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Nicklas has sat on the boards of several leading technology companies in Brazil including Bolsa de Mulher, iMusica and Officer. He speaks frequently at events in the United States and Latin America including the MIT VC Conference and the US-Brazil Innovation Summit and has appeared in TIME, VentureBeat and TheNextWeb. Mr. Nicklas received a BA in International Studies and Economics from the American University and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

• Michael likes the coding side of the business and in his free time, he enjoys horseback riding.

Everson Lopes (São Paulo)

the CEO of The Hive Brazil and Venture Partner of Valor Capital Group. Previously, Lopes served as Managing Director of Ideiasnet S.A and head of new ventures of BuscaPe.com which was sold to Naspers for $375MM. Everson is a Director and Board Member of Moip Pagamentos and several private companies and social initiatives. He formerly served as Chairman of Ciashop (Acquired by Totvs); Hands Mobile (Acquired by PontoMobi/RBS), Bolsa de Mulher Group (Acquired by Batanga Inc); Board Member of iMusica (Acquired by America Movil).

• Everson is a swimmer and adventure running racer. His curiosity lies within how data science can transform the world and life through education.

Doug Smith (NY)

Doug Smith, Director and CFO of Valor Capital Group, has brought considerable financial and investment experience to the Valor team which proves useful in the forms of fiscal advice and valuable business connections as his role as CFO of Valor Capital. Doug is also the Vice President and Principal at Van Beuren Management, Inc and at Wesray Capital where he has participated in the acquisition, financing, monitoring, and exits of numerous Van Beuren and Wesray Capital, LLC portfolio companies from venture to private equity and real estate. Doug is also a Venture Advisor at the Collaborative Fund and sits on the Board of Governors at the St. Joseph’s High School Foundation. Doug is involved in several local charities and community organizations. Doug holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from Holy Cross.

• Doug enjoys spending time with his family and with 4 kids ages 4 to 17 their sports practices keep him pretty busy. He loves music and is a serious New York sports fan.

Kelli Spangler (NY)

Kelli Spangler joined Valor Capital Group in 2012 as Executive Assistant/Office Manager. She is responsible for directly assisting the founding partners, providing support to the Valor team and managing all aspects of the NY office.

Kelli enjoys spending time with her family (furry ones included) and friends. She is passionate about dance, health and all things fitness.