TEAM

James Alexis Mendez

Principal, Investment Committee

James Alexis Mendez (Alexis) is a Principal of Focal Point Funds and co-jointly a Managing Director of Bloom Capital, a private boutique investment and merchant bank.  Prior to founding Focal Point Funds, Alexis initiated a regional private equity consolidation strategy in the healthcare sector with ACON Investments, creating the #1 stem cell banking platform in Latam and sixth largest in the world.  Before this, Alexis was a Director of TCP Latam, a private equity and restructuring fund in Brazil.   Prior to TCP Latam, he was a senior associate at Long Point Capital, a leveraged-buyout private equity fund in New York, where Alexis was responsible for equity investments in excess of USD$100million in several private companies.   Alexis started his career as an investment banking analyst at Harris Williams & Co., with additional experience at UBS and Morgan Stanley.  Alexis holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College, and speaks fluent English, Spanish, Portuguese and conversational French.

Edgardo Diaz Garza H

Principal, Investment Committee

Edgardo Diaz Garza H. (Edgar) is a Principal of Focal Point Funds and a seasoned and well-known businessman in Mexico with a successful business career spanning over three decades.  Edgar founded Pacific Star, one of the largest independent third-party logistics and foodservice companies in Latin America, which was recently sold to Sysco Corporation in the U.S.  Edgar has served in the board of several Mexican Banks as well as many other companies and non-profit organizations.

Paul Savoldelli

Principal, Investment Committee

Paul B. Savoldelli is a Principal of Focal Point Funds has more than thirty years of international transactional experience, with a primary focus on Latin America and the United States. In addition to being a Principal of Focal Point Funds, he is currently the CEO of Americas Management Group (AMG).  Mr. Savoldelli has led the funding and development of more than $3 billion of transactions.
These transactions have created several of the largest triple play cable, media and logistics companies in Latin America.  Prior to AMG, Mr. Savoldelli was a Managing Director and Partner of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated and co-Managing Director for Latin America where he headed the Buenos Aires, Argentina office.  In addition, Mr. Savoldelli participated in an international legal practice in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Mr. Savoldelli has also served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including Telefónica de Argentina, Citicorp Equity Investments, Cablevision Argentina, Intercable Venezuela and Fox Pan American Sports, the leading sports network in Latin America. He received his BA from UCLA (where he graduated with Highest Honors). He received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School (where he graduated with Highest Honors an Editor of the Law Review). Mr. Savoldelli has lived and worked overseas sixteen years (including in Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, England and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) and is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

Fernando Padilla

Financial Analyst

Fernando graduated from ITESM Guadalajara campus with a bachelor’s in financial administration and a concentration in Stock Markets. In school, he participated in various academic projects focused on financial analysis, such as Burkenroad Reports. He completed a Business Management Concentration abroad in Munich, Germany. Fernando is certified with AMIB Figura 3 as a consultant in investment strategies. Additionally, he is a biweekly columnist in the Mural Newspaper. He is fluent in both Spanish and English.