Ricardo Vernazza-Paganini

Ricardo joined Agriculture Captial as the Country Director for Spain. His focus is centered on the identification and development of AC’s platform, vertically integrated investments, in Europe.

Ricardo has 25 years of experience in the Food & Agri space, encompassing investments, operational and consultant roles for Corporations, Family offices, and Agri Funds.

His track record includes exposure throughout the food value chain including permanent & row crops farming, ag inputs, food logistics, food processing & packaging, biofuels, food branded retailing, and food service. Ricardo´s global agribusiness expertise spans four continents: the US, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, China, Russia, South Korea, Malawi, and S. Africa.

Between 2017-2020, he was the Managing Partner of Torreon Capital, a PE Agribusiness firm in Spain, dedicated to sourcing and deploying capital from Institutional Investors into the EU permanent crop space.

Ricardo previously spent 5 years as part of the senior team at Vadela, a family office in Latam, dedicated to agribusiness investments & operations.

Earlier in his career, he was Regional Manager of the US & Canada Planning Sourcing Group of PMI, overlooking a $400 million cost center. At the age of 30, he was the Director for Latam for the US Meat Export Federation, where he advised the USDA during their negotiations of Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Peru, and Panama.

Ricardo holds an MBA at the University of Chicago graduating with high honors, an MS degree in Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, and an Agronomy degree at Universidad de República (Uruguay). He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for academic excellence by the US Government. Ricardo is a native of Uruguay and was born from a 3rd generation Italian family established in S. America in the early 1900s.