Thomas Vega-Byrnes is a bilingual (English-Spanish) Chicago-based attorney with over 19 years of experience in international business and development sector transactions, in Latin America, Europe Asia and Africa, including: private equity funds and investments in microfinance and small business lending institutions in emerging markets; structured finance; secured lending; export finance; foreign investments in emerging markets via share and asset acquisitions, joint ventures and greenfield projects; development of electric power generation facilities (project finance, EPC contracts, power purchase agreements, turbines and other major equipment supply, electricity market regulatory issues), using a variety of technologies (hydro, wind, natural gas and combined cycle, coal) and other major infrastructure projects (airports, chemical plants). He has advised clients around the world, including US and foreign multinational corporations, commercial and government lenders, major project developers, contractors, investment fund managers and development institutions. He has handled matters in over 60 countries. Mr. Vega-Byrnes is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Portuguese, has a working knowledge of French and Italian, and a basic knowledge of Japanese and Chinese. He has studied the laws of the major Latin America jurisdictions, and has dealt with many corporate and financial legal issues arising in Continental Europe and the English-law based countries. Mr. Vega-Byrnes was a partner at Winston & Strawn in Chicago from 1998 to 2002, working with the Project Finance and Leasing Practice Groups. From 1990 to 1998, he was an associate at Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office in the Latin America Practice Group, doing international M&A in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific Basin. From 1993 to 1994, Mr. Vega-Byrnes worked in the Monterrey, Mexico office of B&M, on Mexican real estate and construction projects, corporate and labor matters. He also did an International Clerkship in the firm’s Mexico City office in 1989. Mr. Vega-Byrnes received a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in May 1990, and was admitted to practice in Illinois in 1990 and in New York in 2003. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Business Law and International Practice Sections and Construction Law Forum, and the Illinois and New York State Bar Associations. He is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and for several years was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law.