Boutique strategy & alliances advisory

The strategic partner
for sustainable value
Built across borders
and industries.

001 Mission

To create value, deliberately.
To stay through the work.

— A vision, in two sentences.

002 Services

The work, in four chapters.

Each engagement is shaped to the situation — but our practice clusters around four disciplines, drawn from three decades inside Fortune 500s, regulated incumbents, and start-ups alike.

— 01

Strategy & planning

Full strategic-planning cycles, from design through implementation and follow-through. Scenario planning, business-model audits, and the discipline of revisiting the plan when the world moves.

Scenario Planning Strategic Cycles Model Audits
— 02

Strategic alliances

Designing, structuring, and stewarding partnerships that compound capability. Drawn from doctoral research and over $600M in coordinated alliance investments across the energy value chain.

Joint Ventures Partner Selection Governance
— 03

Growth & ventures

From business-concept ideation to capacity assessment and full plan development. We work with founders and operators alike, applying methodologies tested across industries.

Business Plans Capacity Studies Org Design
— 04

Investment decisions

Conceptualization, evaluation, and implementation of investment projects. Performance improvement, benchmarking, and the rigorous economics that separate good capital allocation from hopeful capital allocation.

Capex Evaluation Benchmarking Performance
Practiced across six industries

Energy

Pemex — $4B+ business plans, $600M alliance integration across the petrochemical value chain.

Petrochemicals

Strategic planning lead for the Ammonia business unit; multi-horizon scenario work for board capital allocation.

Logistics

Codysur Group — nationwide fuel optimization, ~$300K annual savings; $20M truck-stop development.

Hospitality

La Neta — co-founded restaurant group, six locations across Sweden & Denmark, +30% sales via brewery alliance.

Construction & Real Estate

Bufete Industrial & ESCOPSA — industrial and infrastructure projects. Kinure — residential and commercial development.

Technology & Hydrogen

Lecturer in hydrogen regulation at Universidad Externado; emerging-energy advisory across Latin America.

003 Track record

Three decades, measured.

Numbers from the public-sector chapter — Pemex, Codysur, La Neta, and the consultancies in between. The work behind the numbers is what we bring to the next engagement.

$4B+
Capital plansInvestment business plans developed across upstream, petrochemical, and downstream value chains.
$600M+
Strategic alliancesCoordinated alliance investments integrating the petrochemical value chain.
$300M+
Production growthMulti-disciplinary projects coordinated end-to-end through regulated procurement.
30+
YearsInternational practice across public and private sectors, start-ups to Fortune 500s.
100+
Seminars & conferencesInternational speaking and lecturing engagements across energy, strategy, and alliances.
004 Founder

A practitioner's posture.

VCA is led by Dr. Joaquin Figueroa — a strategist whose career bridges three worlds: regulated incumbents, international ventures, and the academy.

VCA / FOUNDER Est. 2022
Dr. Joaquin Figueroa
Dr. Joaquin Figueroa PhD · MBA · MSc
Managing Director & Founder
Joaquin R. Figueroa

Thirty years across energy, petrochemicals, construction, logistics, technology, and hospitality — in companies ranging from Fortune Global 500 incumbents to founder-led start-ups in Scandinavia and the Americas.

A doctorate from the University of Dundee on strategic alliances in the energy sector grounds the practice in research; honorary and guest lectureships at Dundee and Universidad Externado de Colombia keep it current. Author, conference speaker, reviewer for the European Management Journal.

Personal mark The signature Joaquin uses for his independent advisory and writing.
Doctorate PhD Strategic Alliances
University of Dundee, UK
Graduate MBA Oil & Gas
University of Dundee, UK
Lectureship Universidad Externado
Hydrogen & Energy Regulation
Books & Papers 10+ publications
energy strategy & alliances
005 Voices

What clients tell us.

Selected references, lightly edited for length.

All the information from the meetings derives in a call for action — and to be focused. A very good plan that serves as a roadmap.

Client reference · Strategic planning

His expertise in generating strategies and focus accelerates the process of goal achievement.

Client reference · Growth advisory

It's easier to look at things in a different way when you have external support. A fresh vision adds a different perspective that benefits and facilitates the management tasks.

Client reference · Operating company

The service has clarified the vision and allowed to find opportunities — helped identify different aspects of the operation and found underestimated capacities. This increases the company potential.

Client reference · Capacity assessment
006 Selected engagements

Where the work has already been done.

A short list. The pattern: bring strategic and operational rigor to a complex situation, then stay through the work.

Energy · Pemex, Mexico

Integrating the petrochemical value chain.

Situation

Mexico's National Oil Company — a Fortune Global 500 incumbent — needed to integrate its petrochemical operations across upstream, downstream, and the ammonia business unit, against a regulatory environment that limited partnership structures.

Move

Led strategic planning for the petrochemical business unit; structured strategic alliances integrating the value chain; coordinated multidisciplinary teams across engineering, finance, legal, and procurement.

Outcome

$4B+ in capital plans developed, $600M+ in coordinated alliance investments, $300M+ in production-growth projects executed end-to-end.

Hospitality · La Neta, Sweden & Denmark

From one location to six — via a brewery alliance.

Situation

An independent restaurant concept in Stockholm wanted to expand across Scandinavia but lacked the capital, distribution, and local partnerships to scale at speed.

Move

Co-founded the company; designed the business plan; structured a strategic alliance with a Denmark-based brewery; led the board through the first franchise agreement in Sweden.

Outcome

Six locations across Sweden & Denmark; ~30% sales lift attributable to the brewery alliance; first-of-its-kind franchise structure for the category.

Logistics · Codysur Group

Diversifying a transportation group during COVID.

Situation

An established logistics and transportation services group wanted to diversify across industries and regions while protecting margins on its core operations.

Move

Implemented a nationwide fuel-optimization program; introduced project-management and governance practices for a solar-energy implementation; led strategic planning and alliance design for a new $20M truck-stop development.

Outcome

~$300K in annual fuel savings realized; reduced energy dependency through the solar implementation; truck-stop project paused due to COVID-19 with the structure preserved for restart.

007 Speaking & writing

A practice that teaches in public.

Selected lectures, keynotes, and publications. The thinking that informs the work — and that we share with the field.

Recent talks

  • Apr 2026 The AI Co-Founder Mindset: Building Strategic Partnerships between Humans and Artificial Intelligence RGV Startup Week · Brownsville, TX
  • Apr 2025 Strategic Partnerships: The Startup Growth Multiplier RGV Startup Week · Brownsville, TX
  • May 2024 Strategic Crossroads: Navigating the Planning Conundrum RGV Startup Week · Brownsville, TX
  • May 2021 The Transformation of the Oil & Gas Companies and Strategic Alliances in the Energy Transition II Congress · Asociación Iberoamericana de Derecho de la Energía · Bogotá
  • Oct 2016 Energy Reform in Mexico: Opportunities and Challenges CEPMLP LATAM Conference · Argentina

— and 100+ further engagements across energy, petrochemicals, transport & logistics, and management.

Selected writing

  • Book chapter The Transformation of the Oil & Gas Companies and Strategic Alliances in the Energy Transition In Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho de la Energía Vol. IV · Universidad Externado
  • Book chapter Status of P3s through the Lens of Infrastructure Projects in Latin America In Public Private Partnerships in the Mining-Energy Sector · Universidad Externado
  • PhD thesis Strategic Alliances in the Energy Sector: Understanding Performance from the Perspective of Process Theories of Change CEPMLP · University of Dundee, UK
  • Working paper Fiscal Liabilities and Their Influence on the Performance of a State Oil Company: The Case of Pemex CEPMLP · University of Dundee, UK
  • Service Reviewer · European Management Journal 2014
008 Approach

How an engagement unfolds.

A diagnostic-first practice. We earn trust through a sharp first read of the situation, then walk with the executive team through the work that follows.

i.

Diagnose

A structured first read of needs and expectations — the basis for everything downstream. No engagement begins without it.

Outcome A written brief you can take to your board.
ii.

Frame

We surface the strategic question, name the trade-offs, and align decision-makers on what success would actually look like.

Outcome A shared definition of success and the constraints around it.
iii.

Build

Plan, model, structure the partnership, evaluate the project. Methodologies tested in regulated and entrepreneurial contexts alike.

Outcome A defensible plan with the financials, governance, and partner architecture in place.
iv.

Walk with you

Strategy fails in implementation more often than in design. We stay through the follow-up — quietly, with disciplined cadence.

Outcome Course corrections in real time, until the value shows up on the balance sheet.
Begin a conversation

A complimentary call.
30 minutes. No agenda.

A structured conversation to understand your needs, expectations, and the shape of the opportunity. The first one's on us.

Schedule on Calendly → Send a message instead

Or reach out directly — joaquin@vc-associates.com

+1 956 873 8366 Rancho Viejo, TX linkedin.com/in/joaquin-figueroa

— "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Franklin