In addition to 1400 clinical team members spread across our 143 veterinary centres, the UNAVETS team supporting partner clinics has extensive experience in the veterinary and business sectors. We manage accounting and finance, marketing, technology, human resources and logistics so that veterinarians can focus on what matters most: the health and well-being of our beloved pets.
Junko Io Sheehan
CEO
Junko has over 20 years experience in finance and corporate development, with over $30 billion in M&A and capital raising transactions. Her previous experience includes work in the TMT investment groups of Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and UBS. Most recently, she has focused on the development of M&A and consolidation strategies and is currently the Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of UNAVETS. She is also the managing partner of Marconi Capital, an investment and advisory vehicle for her and her partners.
Guilherme Assis
CFO & Country Manager Portugal
Guilherme has over 25 years of experience in finance and executive positions, in diverse sectors of activity. He has worked all over the world in countries including India, Singapore and Brazil for multinational companies such as Consoveyo and Efacec Group. He has an extensive background, such as optimizing global finance and treasury teams, management systems and technology, improved efficiencies and also operations, restructuring and business turnaround. He is currently the Managing Director and board member of Onevet.
Enrique Cardona
COO & Country Manager Spain
Enrique has a long-standing career in human and veterinary healthcare dating back over 25 years. Prior to entering the veterinary sector, Enrique held senior management positions in the human health hospital sector, including nursing home business development or as head of international markets for a US multinational company dedicated to second opinion healthcare and telemedicine. His expertise in the human health sector has enabled him to contribute his skill and experience to the veterinary sector.
Ignacio González
Head of Merger and Acquisitions
Ignacio Gonzalez is the Head of M&A for UNAVETS, leading and supporting with the team the significant M&A activity of the Company. Ignacio is also a Founding Partner of Trusteam Capital, an Investor Financial Services company as well as a Managing Partner of UNOMASDOS, a company that provides business advisory services to entrepreneurs. Prior to these roles, Ignacio had more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector (at La Caixa) and with professional experience in American multinational companies in the food sector (Effem Spain) and communications (Burson Marsteller).
Aarón Filiberto Sisternes
Finance Advisor
Aarón is an economist with more than 20 years of experience, developed in the multinational Eastman Kodak, with management responsibilities in the area of Finance & Controller. He is a member of the boards of directors of several companies in Spain, Portugal, the USA, Belgium, Italy and Israel. He is an expert in economic-financial management, managing outsourcing processes, restructuring legal entities, M&A, implementation of new business models and in the management of companies.
Maria Wilhelm
Advisor to the Board
Maria is co-chair of CAMERON GLOBAL and has been instrumental in the company’s growth. She’s held senior positions in the media and technology sectors throughout her career, leading or advising corporate development teams at Time Warner, Netscape, AOL, and Microsoft. She has structured financings, led acquisitions, and developed strategies for accelerated growth and value-creation for early-stage ventures. Throughout her career, she has built a reputation for her ability to align financial strategies with business goals, optimize financial performance, and identify strategic opportunities. A division of CAMERON GLOBAL, Maria runs Earthship, a documentary unit dedicated to projects that address climate change, celebrate oceans, and champion nature. Productions span the Emmy Award-winning climate change series Years of Living Dangerously; The Game Changers; the award-winning short she directed, AKASHINGA: The Brave Ones; and Secrets of the Whales, which won the Emmy for Best Documentary Series in 2021. A National Geographic/Disney franchise, the Secrets series continues with Secrets of the Elephants, which launched on Earth Day 2023, and will appear annually with Secrets of the Octopus in 2024, followed by Penguins and Bees. Maria also functions as executive director of the Avatar Alliance Foundation, which promotes science-based solutions that advance the availability of clean energy, enable healthy oceans, protect and preserve biodiversity and support sustainable food systems. Among her other philanthropic commitments, Maria is a vice-chair at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; a trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation; a board member of the TBA21 Foundation; and a director emeritus of The Explorers Club.
José Ramón Escribano
Senior Advisor
José has a Diploma in Nursing UCM (1977) and a degree in Veterinary Medicine UCM (1985). He is a founding member of the “Asociación Veterinaria SAL” since 1990. In 2013 he assumed the position of managing director of VETSIA Veterinary Hospital of Reference. He is a speaker regarding several courses and seminars related to management, human resources and quality control of services. He has held positions such as: a Member of the Board of Directors of ASALMA (Asociación de Sociedades Anónimas Laborales de Madrid), the President of AMVAC, Asociación Madrileña de Animales de Compañía, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Colegio de Veterinarios de Madrid and the President of the Organizing Committee of the Iberzoo Propet (the largest professional pet fair in Spain).
Manuel Amador
Network Development Director
Manuel has over 30 years of experience in the veterinary animal health sector specialising in operations and strategy for major companies such as Pfizer and Zoetis. He has been a managing assistant of the veterinary hospital VETSIA, as well as being responsible for the strategy and development of Ilusiona Consultoría Veterinaria.
Jaime Sainz
Senior Financial Analyst
Jaime Sainz holds a degree in Business Administration from Cunef and a master’s degree from ICADE University. Jaime worked for two years at EY performing financial audits and six years at Deloitte, where he participated in more than 30 transactions with different clients and in multiple sectors both nationally and internationally.
Juan Pedro Zarranz, CFA
Senior Financial Analyst
Juan Pedro holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from CUNEF and has been a CFA Charterholder since 2021. Juan Pedro worked at KPMG for 3 years and 5 years in the M&A department at Banco Sabadell, providing advice on operations in multiple sectors at a national and international level and has closed transactions to a value of more than 1 billion euros.
Joaquín Guzmán
Financial Analyst
Joaquín is a graduate in Business Administration and Management from ICADE, specialising in finance and stayed in a business school in France (Bordeaux). He has 6 years of professional experience in areas such as consulting and financial services in multinational companies (EADS, EY, BNP Paribas), for clients within multiple sectors, both nationally and internationally.
Elíxabet Aguirre
Area Manager
Elíxabet graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2004. After her studies, she worked in a veterinary clinic in London for a year, before returning to Galicia to continue her career. In 2015, she had the opportunity to manage a number of clinics in Galicia before assuming responsibility for the Kivet and Clinicanimal clinics in the North of Spain and Canary Islands before joining the Unavets Group in February 2023.
José Fernández
Area Manager
Jose has more than 25 years’ experience in the veterinary sector. He is responsible for coordinating and managing UNAVETS veterinary centres in Andalusia and Madrid. He has worked for companies in the veterinary sector such as Hills and Purina and owned and managed five veterinary clinics and a hospital until their sale.
Gaia Lafortezza
Area Manager
Gaia graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bari (Italy) in 2011 and Master in Animal Reproduction at the University of Murcia in 2015. She has been practicing in the small animal and horse sector in different practices in Italy, France and Spain. From 2020 she had the opportunity to dedicate herself to the management of Clinicanimal and Kivet veterinary centers in the area of Catalonia and Aragon until joining the UNAVETS Group at the end of April 2023.
Paulo Pimenta
Operations Director, Portugal
Paulo qualified as a veterinarian in 1998 and studied for an MSc in Veterinary Medicine in 2011 from UTAD, Portugal. In 2002, he completed his post-graduate degree in Veterinary Ophtalmology from UAB, Spain. He also did an Advanced Management Program for Animal Health Companies carried out by Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, Portugal in 2012. He is currently the Operations Director of Onevet and has been the clinical director of HVTM since 2002.
Irene Marco
Clinic Operations Manager
Irene is a graduate in Veterinary Medicine from the UAB. She has more than 10 years of experience in the animal health sector and clinical experience in several hospitals in Barcelona. Other previous experience includes the head of sales and marketing at VetNova and managing the veterinary centres of Kivet.
Alberto Alonso
Senior HR Generalist and Admin
Alberto has a degree in Labour Relations with a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management and a triple Master’s Degree in Occupational Risk Prevention. He has more than 15 years of experience in HR in the Retail sector. He has worked for the last 13 years as HRBP or HR Manager in large companies such as Primark, Salsa Jeans or Worten. With a generalist profile, he has assumed responsibilities in all areas of HR, with a special focus on Personnel Management and Payroll Processes.
Ana Sumastre
Property and Facilities
Ana has an architecture degree from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. She has 25 years of experience as a director in different multinational companies, focusing on expansion, works and maintenance. She has also worked as a project manager, carrying out architectural projects, coordinating and executing new building works and refurbishment of premises for different retail companies in sectors such as catering, banking and commercial.
Patricia Carrera
Clinic Operations Support
Patricia has a degree in Business Administration and Management from Ramón Llull University in Barcelona and a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Commercial Management from ESIC – Business Marketing School. She has more than 10 years of experience in the sector, and has spent the last 5 years working in internal auditing in the banking sector, specialising in compliance and conduct (control of processes, policies and procedures, KPIs, improvement of customer experience).
Alba Rueda
Commercial Operations Support
Alba graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Seville. She is a member of the Professional Association of Insurance Brokers and Real Estate Credit Advisor. She has 5 years of professional experience within the mortgage sector, credit risk analysis (Banco Santander-BNP Paribas) and also has experience as a credit manager in private equity investment fund.
Patryk Zelak
Business Support IT
Patryk has a certificate in System and Network Administrator. He has more than 3 years of experience managing the technical assistance of an IT Department in a multinational healthcare company. During his career he has been able to improve and upgrade local and global infrastructure and implement changes in the manufacturing process. Patryk has delivered more than 15 projects, leading the majority of them, always finding both creative and effective solutions. He is an expert in Project Management, always delivering a profound coordination between each department, need and project and merging a way to deal and prioritize to success.
Sheila Mendoza
Software Support
Sheila has training as a veterinary nurse and radiographic technician. She has had experience as the Head of the Tomography service in the department of Purchasing and management of Qvet software at the Cruz Verde Veterinary Hospital. She has also had experience in customer management doing radiodiagnostic service at Quirón Hospitals.
Belén Díaz
Software Support
Belén is a professional with extensive experience in the veterinary sector. She studied the veterinary assistant course and has worked for several years as a clinical assistant in a reference hospital such as ATV where she has had the opportunity to work with various management programmes. She is an organised, hard-working and enthusiastic person. Her hobbies include photography and nature.
Sonia Higueras
Operations Support
Sonia has a degree in Economics from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. She has 8 years of professional experience in the retail sector, working for large companies such as El Corte Inglés and Gorillas, where she focused on the analysis and improvement of purchasing KPIs. She has experience in start-up, defining and implementing commercial processes.
Pilar Rodríguez
Human Resources Technician
Pilar has a degree in Industrial Psychology from the UCM and a Master’s degree in PRL from the Francisco de Vitoria University. Her professional career has always been linked to human resources and she has more than 10 years of experience in Human Resources in all areas (recruitment, personnel administration, training, development and risk prevention), having worked in different sectors such as retail, healthcare and education. She has worked in companies such as Tiger Flying Copenhagen and as a consultant for Italfármaco and Sanofi.
Jaime Díaz
Director of Marketing & Alliances
Jaime has over 30 years of experience in the veterinary animal health sector. He has worked at companies such as Zoetis, doing their marketing, training and business consultancy, at Pfizer as their Marketing Manager, at Illusiona Consultoría Veterinaria as their Business Consultant, and as a Manager at AMVAC (Madrid Association of Companion Animal Veterinarians).
Ariadna Figueroa
Marketing Associate
Ariadna has a degree in Business Administration and Management and Marketing and Commercial Management from the San Pablo CEU University of Madrid and has a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing from the ESIC Business & Marketing School. She has 5 years of professional experience within the Marketing sector, working for big companies such as LaLiga, Sanitas or Luckia, and also has almost 2 years of professional experience in Advertising Agency, serving clients such as BERING, Ahorramás or SOLDOUT.
Alejandro Sánchez
Controller
Alejandro is a graduate in Business Administration and Management from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and competed a Masters in Auditing and Advanced Accounting from ICADE. He has 5 years of professional experience as an external auditor in Deloitte, working in Spain and the United Kingdom for clients in various sectors and international environments.
Yolanda de Dios
Accounting & Admin Support
Yolanda has a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid and specialises in Auditing. She has more than 20 years of professional experience in financial departments from companies in different job sectors.