Fernando Aguado

Fernando Aguado is an Operating Partner at Sherpa Capital, the Madrid-based private-equity and special-situations firm founded in 2010. He sits on the firm's Management Committee and also serves as the Financial Director (CFO) of the Sherpa Capital management entity. Rather than being a passive financial investor, his role is hands-on: he leads improvement and value-creation projects inside portfolio companies as part of Sherpa's Portfolio Management team, reflecting the firm's model in which roughly half the team is dedicated to operational transformation.

Before joining Sherpa Capital, Aguado built a career spanning banking, consulting and corporate finance leadership. He worked at Banco Santander and at the consultancy Everis, and held CFO positions at various companies across the retail, industrial and consumer-goods sectors — experience that maps directly onto the kinds of businesses Sherpa acquires and restructures.

On the education side, Aguado holds a degree in Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and completed an Executive Master at IESE Business School.

At Sherpa he has been publicly involved in portfolio work such as presenting the growth and recovery strategy for the airline AlbaStar, one of the firm's higher-profile turnaround investments.

• Strategy: Sherpa Capital specializes in special situations, restructurings and turnarounds of mid-sized Iberian companies — buying control positions and driving operational change rather than minority/venture bets.
• Stage / type: Established, often complex or underperforming mid-market companies needing capital plus hands-on management — not seed-stage or angel investments.
• Value creation: The firm pairs financial investment with intensive operational support, embedding operating partners like Aguado to "multiply the company's value." Roughly 50% of the team focuses on operational transformation.
• Scale: Sherpa runs multiple funds (including its Special Situations series) with 350M+ euros deployed across 25+ investments; its Special Situations III fund closed at ~$135M.
• Geography & sectors: Focused on Spain and Portugal, sector-agnostic, with an ESG/SFDR Article 8 framework across recent funds.
• What makes them say yes: A business where operational and financial restructuring — Aguado's core expertise — can unlock a clear path back to profitability.