Gonzalo Grillo

Biography

Gonzalo Grillo is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Brazil in São Paulo. He specializes in crisis management and interim management, acting on several occasions as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer of national and international companies. Mr. Grillo focuses on general management with total profit and loss (P&L) responsibility, business restructuring under high-pressure circumstances, complex negotiations, leading multi-skill teams, and organic and inorganic growth strategies. Among his engagements at A&M, he was responsible for the following: Alumini (engineering), Prumo (infrastructure), Carolo (sugarcane), Keiper (automotive parts), CNA (fast-moving consumer goods), CBA (food service), Azul (air transport), Derivados do Brasil (oil and gas), Localcred (financial services), Mirabella (mining) and Obino (retail). Furthermore, Mr. Grillo has advised professional shareholders such as BTG Pactual, EIG, TPG Capital, Patria, Guggenheim Partners and other family groups. Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Grillo was the founder of Cruz Del Sur, a consulting firm specialized in interim management services with a focus on operational restructuring and performance improvement projects. Some of his notable clients included: Natura, Crocs Latin America, Janus Capital Ashby Brewery, Multi-Strategy Weiss, Wine Import Clients, Craft Brewery Clients, Conatus Capital Hedge Fund and Lone Pine Capital. Mr. Grillo held several key positions at AmBev, including General Manager of the non-alcoholic non-carbonated division with sales of BRL 250 million, managing joint ventures with Pepsi and Unilever. He also served as head of strategic planning of the soft drinks division with sales of BRL1 billion. Later, he was in charge of the sales and direct distribution of the company's portfolio in São Paulo, and subsequently led the innovation department for Latin America and developed the beers imported unit in Brazil. Mr. Grillo began his career as an entrepreneur in his home country, Uruguay, where he co-founded Sea Krill SRL, a company specialized in the development and commercialization of proprietary nutritional supplements and functional foods through strategic alliances with world-class companies, such as Parmalat. He later sold the company to local investors. Mr. Grillo earned an MBA with a specialization in international finance from Thunderbird University and graduated with honors in business administration from the ORT University in Montevideo, Uruguay. While in the U.S., he was awarded the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Scholarship, Texaco Scholarship and AIESEC Scholarship. Mr. Grillo has a Black Belt Six Sigma certificate and has participated in international business courses such as "Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring" at Harvard Business School. He has completed courses as a board member at the Instituto Brasileiro de Gorvernaça Corporativa (IBGC) and has served as a board member in industries such as retail, financial services and diagnostic medicine. He is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Research Interest

He is a multicultural leader with over 25 years of experience and  he specializes in business restructuring under high-pressure circumstances, as well as crisis and interim management