Pablo Vera Pinto 

In 2017, Pablo Vera Pinto left the comfort of a state oil company to bet on a blank sheet of paper. Together with Miguel Galuccio, he founded Vista Energy and, from the financial leadership, helped turn that project into one of the fastest-growing unconventional oil producers in the country. An economist by training and a financier by trade, he is now one of the voices pushing Argentine industry to compete for global capital, with Vaca Muerta’s major plays as its banner.

From global consulting to the energy industry

Pablo Vera Pinto trained as an economist at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and completed an MBA at INSEAD, in Fontainebleau. His first professional steps were not in oil, but in the world of consulting and international finance: he worked at McKinsey & Company in Europe and at the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston in New York. Later, he joined Leadgate Investment Corp., a firm specialized in restructuring acquired companies, where he held roles as restructuring manager, chief financial officer and general manager of companies controlled by the fund. That path gave him an unusual toolbox: analysis, capital and crisis management, all together.

The years at YPF: mergers, acquisitions and learning the business

Direct contact with energy came at YPF. Between 2012 and 2017, he served first as director of Transformation and then as Head of Business Development. From that position, he led the execution of more than twenty merger and acquisition deals, and held board seats at companies such as fertilizer producer Profertil, power generator Central Dock Sud and gas distributor Metrogas, where he was vice president. It was the period in which he learned the energy business from the inside and built the relationships that would later help him make the entrepreneurial leap.

Vista Energy: a blank sheet of paper worth billions

In 2017, he left the structure of a state oil company to enter a high-risk venture. Together with Miguel Galuccio and a small group of partners, he founded Vista Energy, a project he himself describes as a blank sheet of paper. The company was born as an investment vehicle and, in just a few years, became one of the fastest-growing unconventional oil producers in the country, with a valuation that reached a peak close to 5 billion dollars. Vera Pinto highlights an organizational culture that is unusual for the sector: few hierarchical levels, no vice presidencies or grandiose titles, with the founders and managers close to the operation. That horizontal structure, he argues, is part of the secret behind its growth.

The full bet on Vaca Muerta

As chief financial officer, Vera Pinto was one of the minds behind the company’s most decisive decision: concentrating all investments in Vaca Muerta. Vista divested its conventional assets to channel 100 percent of its capital into the development of Neuquén shale, arguing that the risk-adjusted returns of unconventional oil are currently higher and will remain so for some time. Securing the financing to sustain that plan, in a country with intermittent access to credit, became the center of his work.

A financial view of the energy future

Vera Pinto became a frequent voice in Argentina’s energy debate. He rejects the idea of a transition and prefers to speak of energy addition: for him, the world will add all viable sources to meet demand that continues to grow, and oil retains a central role. His diagnosis on competitiveness is demanding: he argues that Argentina competes for global capital against plays such as the Permian, Guyana or Brazil’s offshore, and that the sector must convince itself that it is capable of playing in that major league. The obstacle he emphasizes most is the need to lower the cost per well and attract the large private equity funds that are still watching the country from the outside.

Commitment to education

His influence goes beyond the company. Vera Pinto sits on the Board of Directors of Enseñá por Argentina, the foundation dedicated to promoting more equitable education, where he contributes his financial experience as treasurer. It is the less visible side of an executive who built his career around numbers, but who decided to put it…