moksha8, a specialty pharmaceutical company, announces the appointment of Mariano Garcia-Valiño as a Board Member and Chairman of its Compensation and Business Development Committees.

Mariano has been active at the intersection of healthcare, deal-making and entrepreneurship for over 25 years, experiencing the space from many different angles, be it by building and operating companies, leading M&A and licensing transactions, working for some of the premier players in the business or managing investments for professional equity firms.

Recently, Mariano stepped down as CEO of Biotoscana Investments (BR:GBIO33), a company he architected, launched and took public in a transaction that was the largest healthcare IPO in the Americas in 2017 and the region’s first cross-border IPO in a decade. Under his leadership, the company acquired, merged and transformed several local pharmaceutical players into a streamlined 10-country leading specialty player and closed licensing deals for over 40 novel compounds with some of the premier players in the world.

“We are very excited to have Mariano join our Board”, said Daniel K. Turner III, Founding Partner of Montreux. “He brings invaluable experience in building Latin-American platforms and a unique track record in licensing and M&A. We believe he will be instrumental in taking Moksha8 to the next level”.

“I am very excited to work with the team at Montreux and Moksha8, whom I have known for several years and with whom we share a passion for building great businesses”, said Mr. Garcia-Valiño. “Mariano is joining at a pivotal time”, added Joel Barlan, CEO of Moksha8. “The company is leaving its start-up phase and prepared for accelerated development. We believe Moksha8 will benefit highly from his experience”.

Mr. Garcia-Valiño holds an Engineering degree from Universidad de Buenos Aires and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is based in Montevideo, Uruguay.