Vicente Valencia

🤔 Risk-Averse Renegade 💪 | Helping others take the leap of faith | Entrepreneur & Investor | Personal Growth, Business. 🐭 Join the free rat race 🐭

If you need PPP Advice or Training that you WON'T get from the World Bank go to: https://vicentevalencia.com.

I love infrastructure delivery and I have good reasons for that. 

I still remember my third day working in PPPs, around 20 years ago. 

I was put on a Board meeting, and my boss told the rest of the board members that "I was the new PPP advisor". 

Not bad for the third day. 

I didn't know what a PPP was, nor even a what a Board was, or shareholders, or construction contracts, or back-to-backs... and there I was. 

Now, after having tendered, managed, delivered, refinanced, sold, a few PPPs in Europe, North America and New Zealand, as a COO, CEO and Board Member, I can tell you many more stories... some of them, "terror stories": extra costs, claims, delays, incompetence, bad clients, terrible contractors, evil designers, etc. 

But I can also tell you many great stories about people. 

Happy people enjoying a new and fantastic piece of infrastructure. 

These assets have transformed for the better lives, cities and even countries. 

I’ll never forget the 15 December 2012, when I opened as the COO, the A30 Project in Montreal. 

I put my beautiful and very patient Spanish wife on a toll both to enjoy. 

Many nights working at night and she supported me all the way long, and I wanted her to live the experience. 

During a break to have diner – it was a long day – she told me that users thanked her saying “Gracias”. 
I’ll never forget the joy and happiness of thousands of people that wanted to cross the bridges that we built.
 
This is the power of great infrastructure, properly delivered. 

This is why, I love that business. 

I also have two secret passions: Real Estate Investing, and a popular newsletter. Everyday, I send a free tip about business, project management, investment, motivation and personal growth. All this comes with Spanish spice. Subscribe, join other +2k free minds and enjoy.

Co-Founder and Investor

Love the challenges, the design and changing spaces and cities for the better. 

We give a second opportunity to old buildings and houses creating unique homes.

The model is not the failure. Execution is.

PPP Executioner | Providing Clarity to PPP Professionals, Agencies and Investors | Join the PPP MOVEMENT for Infra tips and stories

Founder & Director, Infra Advisors | Driving Innovation in Infrastructure

Metro Line 14 received zero bids. Honestly, not surprising.
PPP works when risk and reward are allocated fairly. It does not work when it becomes a way to move a difficult project off the government's plate. Private players understand the difference, and they act accordingly.

Urban metro projects in India have rarely been kind to private capital. Fares you cannot control, ridership you cannot predict, clearances that can change the entire calculus. Walking away from that is not hesitation. It is good judgment.
Infrastructure funds and lenders look for predictable cash flows and bankable structures. Regulated fares, uncertain ridership and environmental clearance risks do not offer either. The numbers do not close, and no amount of strategic intent changes that reality.
What is harder to ignore is that this has been seen before. The pattern is not new. Each unsuccessful bid process carries a real cost in terms of time, resources and delayed infrastructure that cities genuinely need.
The pivot to EPC makes sense. But the harder question is whether project structures are being evaluated honestly before they go to market. That is where the real work lies.

Hopefully, this time the lesson travels upstream.

#PPP #InfrastructureAdvisory #UrbanInfrastructure

If you’re interested about personal growth, you should read this, and of course, follow Matt Gray 

#personalgrowth

Founder & CEO, Founder OS | Proven systems to grow a profitable audience with organic content.

Being surrounded by the right people is the best hack for ultimate growth.

Your circle determines your ceiling.

Everything shifted when I found mentors who were 10x my level.

Their "normal" became my new baseline.
Their problems became my new targets.
Their thinking became my new standard.

Environment is stronger than willpower.

Here are 6 ways to upgrade your circle today:

1. Join Communities of High-Performers

Seek environments where excellence is the minimum standard, not the exception.

I've found that when you're the least accomplished person in the room, your growth accelerates exponentially.

High-performance communities create natural accountability that no app or system can replicate.

2. Attend Events Where Your Heroes Gather

The magic rarely happens during the presentations, it's in the lobby conversations, the dinners after, the unexpected connections.

I met one of my most influential mentors not during his keynote, but while waiting for coffee at an event I almost didn't attend.

Proximity creates possibility.

3. Create Value Before Asking

The moment you shift from "what can I get?" to "what can I give?" everything changes.

I spent six months helping others in my industry before ever asking for anything in return.

This approach built a reservoir of goodwill that continues to overflow years later.

4. Share Your Work Publicly

Building in public isn't just about transparency, it's about signaling.

When you openly share your journey, values, and systems, you naturally attract aligned people while filtering out those who don't resonate.

My most valuable relationships began when someone reached out after seeing something I'd shared.

5. Be Genuinely Curious

Curiosity is the hidden superpower in relationship-building.

I've found that asking thoughtful questions and truly listening creates deeper connections than any amount of impressive talking.

People remember the person who made them feel understood, not the one who tried to sound intelligent.

6. Invest in Relationships

The relationships that transformed my business weren't built over a single coffee meeting, they developed through consistent investment over time.

I block time every week specifically for relationship nurturing, treating it with the same importance as any business-critical activity.

I've seen this play out over and over with founders in our community. When they upgrade their circle, their business transforms almost automatically.

Your network isn't just your net worth. It's your thinking, your standards, your opportunities, your energy, and ultimately, your future.

Who are you surrounding yourself with?

__

Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Matt Gray for more.

Want to learn how to build a profitable personal brand that grows even when you’re not around?

Join my free live Workshop on March 24th (7 days away) to steal my homework: https://fos.now/eIBmtB

Your Circle Determines Your Ceiling

REAL Infrastructure Capital Partners LLC

Financial management of the fund holding companies and SPVs in El Salvador & Panama, comprising a portfolio of operating utility-scale solar PV projects for a combined capacity of 89MW. Asset management. Management of a local team of 2 people based in El Salvador. Main responsibilities:
● Build and maintain financial models and cash flow projections;
● Collaborate in the negotiations of project finance and debt facilities;
● Prepare construction and operating budgets;
● Manage cash balances; preparation of capital calls and capital distributions to LPs;
● Manage PPAs in pre-operational and operational phases;
● Supervise preparation of financial statements and operating reports of assets under management;
● Attorney-In-Fact of the project and portfolio companies, both at country and holding levels;

Main achievements:
● Managed the importation and tax exemption (i.e. VAT and custom duties) of solar PV and substation equipment in El Salvador for 4 projects with a combined value of $55M.
● Participated in the successful negotiations of two construction loans and three long-term project finance facilities with local and international financial institutions for a combined value of +$100M.
● Implemented a script in Python to automatize the calculation of PPA monthly invoices to distributing companies from electricity market data provided by the Salvadoran dispatch centre (UT).

CFO El Salvador & Panama

• Conduct due diligences of renewable energy projects in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean for a $100M fund;
• Prepare and review financial models and perform sensitivity analysis for the investment targets;
• Prepare investment committee material and participate in the approval process of investments;
• Support project finance negotiations;
• Prepare presentations and materials for investor reports;

Achievements:
• Participated in the successful negotiation of a mezzanine instrument for two wind projects in Mexico;
• Built and managed the financial model that was used for the 2016 renewable energy tender in El Salvador. The project presented was one of the three awardees of PPAs for Solar PV.

Senior Investment Associate

Grindery.io

Led a consultancy project focusing on the strategic design and implementation of a conversion model for social tokens into utility tokens during a Community Token Sales.

Consultant

Alstom Renewable Power

Member of the group "Advanced Product Offering". Main goals of this position are to launch new products and optimise existing product and service offering in onshore wind portfolio. Main responsibilities:

Launch the development of new products and optimize existing product and service offering in onshore wind portfolio. Projects:
• Initial stages of development of new ECO 1xx onshore wind turbine.
• Development of a new service product to improve bankability of wind farms. 
• Low-CAPEX retrofits and upgrades to increase turbine performance.

Product Manager, Onshore Wind

Main responsibilities:

1. Price definition:
• Design, development and ownership of a financial modelling tool to simulate wind farm business cases. This tool is to evaluate competitive positioning versus competitors and define winning wind turbine and services price strategies based on NPV, IRR and LCoE.
• Development of a regional wind turbine pricing model.

2. Product development:
• Analyze market and customer requirements, identify potential needs and opportunities and contribute to the medium- and long-term product development strategy together with VP of Product Management and key company stakeholders (Platform, R&D, Sales, Sourcing).
• Launch internally new product development and follow-up on implementation. Some of the products I have launched are a new SCADA system (WindAccess™), a de-icing system for blades and a condition monitoring system for the drivetrain of the wind turbine.

3. Promotion activities:
• Participate in international fairs and conferences to promote Alstom Wind (e.g. attended as Speaker to Wind Power Romania 2013 and ICCI 2012 Istanbul).
• Organize promotion events with customers (e.g. customer events in Belgrade and Istanbul).

4. Other activities:
• Design and global implementation of a customer satisfaction survey. Since the introduction in 2011 more than 25 direct interviews with customers have been conducted, leading to the creation of specific action plans to improve customer satisfaction levels.
• Support to Sales Department: Preparation of a budgetary offer of 37 wind turbines for a 100MW wind farm in Kazakhstan. As a result Alstom was included in the list of qualified suppliers.

Product Marketing Manager, Onshore Wind Europe & Global Services

Gamesa Eólica

Sales Engineer, Onshore Wind. Main responsibilities:

1. Preparation and follow-up of commercial and technical offers:
• Manage tendering activities of wind turbine supply and EPC contracts in Sweden, Norway, UK, Ireland, Spain and Italy. Main achievement was to be shortlisted for a 250MW project in the north of Sweden with a local utility.
• Contribute to contract negotiations by managing contractual documentation and coordinating with support departments (pre-sales, wind engineering, legal, etc.). I was involved in the successful negotiation of a 78MW EPC contract in the South of Italy.

2. Account management:
• Support customer requests and coordinate pre-sales activities (e.g. grid connection analysis, site feasibility studies, site access reports).

Sales Engineer, Onshore Wind

ThyssenKrupp Rothe Erde GmbH

Renewable Energy group. Main responsibilities:

1.	Account management, renewable energy group (onshore and offshore wind and solar sectors, main accounts: GE Wind, Areva Wind, BARD, Vestas, Mecasolar)
• Support customer requests
• Preparation and follow-up of commercial offers
• Coordination of different departments (engineering, production, quality, logistics) to fulfil contractual supplies

2.	Training Program:
• One-year training consisting of assignments in key departments of the main production facility in Lippstadt, Germany (Engineering, Production, Quality, etc.)

Account Manager, Slewing Bearings

Fujikura Automotive Europe

Sales engineer, electrical harnesses and plastic parts for the automotive industry. Main responsibilities:

1. Account management (main customers: Volkswagen Group, Valeo Group)
• Support customer requests 
• Preparation, follow-up and negotiation of commercial offers
• Coordination of different departments (engineering, production, quality, logistics) to fulfil contractual supplies
• Internal management of customer non-conformities

2. Market prospection and contact of potential customers

3. Support the sales budget preparation

Sales Engineer

Engineer turned into CFO | Financial Modeling Craftsman | I write about using Excel and Python to make sense of data | Learning Addict

My son was born in New York because of financial modeling.

So fundamental is financial modeling in my life.

Do you want to know the story? Come and join me on a journey through time.

...

In 2014, the company I worked for in Spain was about to be acquired by a competitor.

There were tons of uncertainties at that time... What will happen after the acquisition...? Will my position be maintained or eliminated...? Will I be relocated or fired...? 

I took the reins and decided before being decided on by someone else. 

And I decided to move. 

I started looking for a new position. It didn't matter whether in Spain or somewhere else. I wanted to make a wise move. In your mid-thirties, you cannot afford to make career mistakes.

After months of networking, applications, and interviews, I found a position as a Senior Investment Associate in New York. I would work for a private equity fund investing in renewable energy projects in Latin America.

What were the keys to being hired? Mainly 2: 

1. My knowledge of renewable energy and...
2. I was proficient in financial modeling.

So there I was in March 2015, moving from Barcelona to New York with my pregnant wife to start a new job. Or rather... to start a new life.

The outcome?

In May 2015, my son was born in New York.

...

Looking back, I feel proud of the journey. As a member of an exceptional team, I contributed to:

➤ Develop, finance, build, and operate 68MW of solar PV projects in El Salvador;
➤ Acquire and operate a 21MW solar PV project in Panama;
➤ Finance 99MW of onshore wind in Mexico;
➤ Backing all projects with dollarized long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

The personal and professional growth I have experienced throughout this journey outpaces the risks, uncertainties, and difficulties endured these years.


Financial modeling was my entrance ticket to this journey. And one of my primary contributions to the team's performance has been financial modeling.

If you are facing financial modeling challenges, I can help you.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me about your challenge. Or drop me an email at ruben@agilibus.es and let me know how to help.

taplio

The Battle

Vicente Valencia

Rubén Martínez Fanals

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreVicente Valencia's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Vicente Valencia

Rubén Martínez Fanals

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Vicente Valencia's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreVicente Valencia's LinkedIn Performance