Profile
Ricardo d'Avila
Ricardo’s career started in 1997 at Legrand, where he experienced many roles and assumed commercial, product development and marketing responsibilities.
He moved to Sonepar in 2007 as Marketing Director for South America. He was subsequently appointed Chief Operations Officer for the region and served until 2011. In the same year, he moved to Geneva, Switzerland from São Paulo, Brazil, where in the Sonepar headquarters he was International Head of two product divisions and later established the International Marketing team as International Market Director until December 2017.
Ricardo supported the American electrical manufacturer in 2018 in its channel development in Europe and Brazil with double-digit performance delivered.
His consulting journey at Expansio is starting in 2019/2020.
He studied to be a Civil Engineer at Unicamp, one of the best universities in Brazil, and has an MBA in Executive Marketing and HR. Ricardo has also done an International Leadership Program at INSEAD.
He has two globally leading B2B multinational companies in his professional background, as well as 10 years of experience as manufacturer and another 10 years as distributor/wholesaler, possessing both views from the two sides of the table.
Born in 1975 and originally from São Paulo, Brazil, he has Italian citizenship and a definitive Swiss visa, having lived in Geneva/Europe for more than eight years.
Ricardo is passionate about people and cultures, rending his move to Geneva a natural fit.
In his free time, he runs a social project which supports Brazilian students from low-income families.
Our Services
Strategy | Market & Channel Development
Having international strategy and commercial excellence in our DNA, we help you define market, channel and/or account development strategies.
Whether a global company willing to maximize its distribution approach, a medium-sized European business seeking to open new channels in Brazil, or a small international business seeking electrical equipment manufacturers to complement its offer, we can be your consulting partner to accompany you through each project.
Strategic Procurement Support
Looking for partners to complement your portfolio? No matter what product or technology you are looking for, we can leverage our extensive manufacturers' network to select and approach the suppliers that best match your requirements.
Beyond establishing connections, we can facilitate the full process in terms of partnership and supply chain.
Operational Support
We are technology experts, and being in the field is our background and passion! Beyond strategy definition, we bring full support in terms of operational implementation, follow-up and management.
Years of experience in the field have made us capable of providing best-in-class customer and market development support.
Our Unique Expertise
Electrical Materials Experience
With an extensive range of technologies and increasingly impacted by digitalization, the electrical market is dominated by giant manufacturers and brands (i.e. ABB, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC, LEGRAND and SIEMENS), and a very fragmented distribution channel is still present.
Our wide experience at top manufacturers, as well as one of the two leading electrical distributors worldwide, we bring a wide range of international capabilities and expertise in the global electrical market, from both manufacturers' and distributors' perspectives.
European Market Experience
How to enter, how to build success, how to handle and sustain it in a complex market? That is a key question in Europe, a market with many countries, many cultures, many local regulations, and different price-cost levels.
Our know-how and approach come from our long experience in the market, with a lot of successes as well as a few failures: real life learnings that we now leverage with our clients.
Brazilian Market Experience
Economic instability, size, population, tax laws, political system, cosmopolitan culture, labor laws as questions, but economic potential, resources, digital and people as affirmation.
With our understanding and experience in this unique market, we can help you solve the complex equation of reaching success with profitability.
Our Partners
