Islée Oliva Salinas

Islée Oliva Salinas is our Venture Partner based in London. She serves as an active Trustee, Board Member, and Executive Council to a diverse portfolio of special interest groups and to charitable and humanitarian organisations.

Islée studied at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in International Economics, Finance, and Commerce, and a minor in the Humanities in Foreign Affairs. During her tenure at Merrill Lynch and Co., she successfully completed the MBA Capital Markets Sales and Trading Program, the NASD Series 7, 24 and 63 qualifications, and the Certified Financial Manager accreditation. She is fluent in Spanish and French and has a working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.

She has over three decades of professional experience in the financial services and investment banking industry, having worked at Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Reynolds, and Bear Stearns & Co., in the strategic planning, corporate finance/mergers and acquisitions, capital markets origination, asset securitisation/structured finance, and institutional fixed income and equity sales divisions. Her assignments were international in scope, with multi-jurisdictional postings and secondments within the US, UK, Europe, Asia, and MENA/GCC regions.

She brings a wealth of professional experience to Vine Ventures through her long-standing relationships with sovereign, supra national, and privately held conglomerates, and with institutional alternative, private equity, and venture capital investment managers.

She has structured and raised funding for early and late-stage private equity, private placements of public equity, and mezzanine financing for fast developing private and publicly-listed companies and alternative investment strategies. She has focused on finding value investments in innovative and disruptive technology companies involved in security and risk mitigation, healthcare, life sciences, natural resources, and alternative energy. She has identified special situations offering compelling, long-term opportunities presented by market dislocations and inefficiencies.

She has worked closely with family offices, endowments, and foundations, providing business advisory and project management oversight, and security and risk mitigation services in her areas of expertise. She maintains useful links with family office networks, deal clubs, private equity portals, and multi-family-office investment platforms.

She supports humanitarian causes, conservation of the environment, and intercultural educational endeavours. She has a keen interest in the creative and performing arts, including dance, music, and theatre. She is an avid thoroughbred racehorse enthusiast. An intrepid globetrotter, she has boundless enthusiasm and passion for broadening her horizons.