BBVA enhances its support of Financial Sponsors with expansion of its U.S. coverage team

BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) continues to enhance its presence and capabilities in covering Financial Sponsors through the strategic expansion of its U.S. team. This growth reflects the bank’s commitment to institutional clients, sustainable development, financial innovation, and the cultivation of global strategic relationships in core markets.

The expansion of the U.S. team reaffirms BBVA’s dedication to providing specialized, high value-added coverage, financing, and advisory solutions to global Financial Sponsor clients. This sector plays a critical role in global economic transformation, driving investment in infrastructure, digitalization, and the energy transition.

BBVA delivers a global platform offering tailored solutions to a diverse base of institutional clients, including private equity funds, infrastructure funds, and other institutional investors and asset managers. Global capabilities include project finance, real estate finance, fund level finance, corporate lending, leverage finance, M&A advisory, credit solutions, global markets, and sustainability across sectors. 

Expanding the U.S. Financial Sponsors coverage team

With the ambition to cover the main global financial sponsors in the most important financial hubs in which they operate, BBVA established its U.S. Financial Sponsor coverage presence in early 2024 with the initial hiring of Michael Lardieri, Managing Director (based in New York). Since then, the team continues to experience significant growth and client success. 

Michael joined from Natixis CIB, where he served as Senior Banker, Telecoms & Technology covering Financial Sponsor clients and leading the U.S. Telecom & Technology sector coverage. Prior to joining Natixis, Michael worked in underwriting and origination at Antares Capital and GE Capital’s Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) team, where he focused primarily on sponsor financings and portfolio management.

The latest U.S. Financial Sponsor coverage new hires have strengthened BBVA’s coverage and execution capabilities across products and geographies, enabling BBVA to more effectively deliver a Radical Client Perspective - the core pillar among BBVA’s strategic priorities. 

The U.S. Financial Sponsors team has now grown to include the following professionals:

• Alberto Carreño, Managing Director, joins from SMBC Group, where he served as the Head of Corporate Finance Advisory & Solutions. At SMBC, he led the origination and execution of acquisition and HoldCo financings for infrastructure focused financial sponsors across the Americas. Prior to joining SMBC, he worked in the Financial Solutions Group at Deutsche Bank, where he focused on the origination and execution of derivatives and structured financing transactions in Latin America.  


• Jack Isla, Vice President, joins from Natixis CIB, where he managed a diversified portfolio of corporate credit exposures across leveraged and project finance transactions. At BBVA, he will be responsible for driving the origination of commercial relationships, development of existing client relationships, successful execution and managing junior resources on the team. 


• Conor Wong, Senior Analyst, joins from TI Partners, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory within the Technology and Digital Infrastructure sectors.


• Mitch Thammarath, Analyst, joins from Capital One’s Analyst Rotational Program, where he worked on the Leveraged Lending desk and the Tax Equity Investing desk. 

Both Conor and Mitch will support the team’s efforts in developing, marketing, and delivering BBVA’s products and services globally, forming part of a global coverage team with main hubs in New York, London, Paris, Madrid and Mexico City. 

“We are proud to expand the U.S. Financial Sponsors team,” said Regina Gil Hernández, Head of BBVA CIB USA. “Their deep client relationships, industry knowledge, and sector expertise further enhances BBVA’s ability to deliver bespoke solutions and exceptional client service to support the evolving needs of Financial Sponsors across diverse markets. These new additions to our U.S. team reinforce our continuous commitment to anticipating client needs, establishing long-term partnerships with them, and enhancing our presence in the U.S.”

Key pillars to BBVA’s strategy 

BBVA’s global strategy is focused on attracting top talent to build specialized teams in key geographies. This approach enables the bank to deliver advanced financial solutions and establish itself as a trusted partner for institutional clients.

With the expansion of its U.S. team, BBVA CIB reaffirms its commitment to leadership in the Financial Sponsors sector and continues to position itself as a driver of growth and innovation in the international financial industry.