Sharon Matthews

Sharon Matthews is Partner and Chief Financial Officer at Linzor Capital Partners in Chile. Linzor’s team page lists her as “Partner & CFO | Chile,” and her firm biography says she joined Linzor in 2010. In this role she sits on the finance side of a Latin American private equity platform that has raised more than US$1.4 billion in capital commitments since inception and invests across Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay.

Before Linzor, Matthews spent approximately 12 years in J.P. Morgan’s Santiago office. She joined J.P. Morgan in 1994 as Country Risk Manager for Chile, later worked as Vice President in Debt Capital Markets, and subsequently became a senior Client Banker covering the Chilean market.

Earlier in her career, Matthews was an M&A analyst at Goldman Sachs. She was later appointed Special Assistant to John C. Whitehead, then Deputy Secretary of State and former Chairman of Goldman Sachs. Linzor’s biography states that she holds a BA from Dartmouth; MarketScreener lists her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1985.

• Linzor is not an angel or seed investor based on the available evidence. Its stated focus is Latin American middle-market private equity, especially companies valued between US$75 million and US$400 million.
• Linzor’s core geographic targets are Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru, with opportunistic activity in Uruguay, Ecuador and Spain.
• The firm seeks control investments so it can implement operational value-added initiatives, manage exit timing, and stay actively involved in strategy and management.
• Linzor’s investment themes include digital transformation; underserved sectors and changing demographics; and resource efficiency.
• The firm looks for companies providing essential services or technology in Latin America, including healthcare, education, financial services, telecommunications, SaaS, fintech, edtech and fiber-optic connectivity.
• Linzor describes its approach as value creation through “operating and ESG improvements and strategic initiatives as opposed to financial engineering and the use of excessive leverage.”
• Linzor says it deliberately channels capital into businesses that deliver essential services “such as health, education, digital infrastructure” to underserved communities.
• Investment decisions are institutionalized: Linzor says opportunities involve at least two partners per deal, weekly committee discussion, and final approval by unanimous partner vote.