Partners

Virginia K. Sheffield

President

Market Entry, Business Planning and Strategy

Virginia Sheffield has more than 25 years of private and public sector experience as an executive, research economist, policy analyst, and negotiator. While experienced in a number of markets, she currently is focusing on Afghanistan. Her accomplishments include successfully negotiating a new telecommunications license for Telephone Systems International, Inc. – the parent of Afghan Wireless – with the Government of Afghanistan, securing financing and political risk insurance for a multimillion dollar housing project in Kabul, and negotiating leases for government and private property. Her broad management expertise is applied to evaluating clients’ investment opportunities and bringing those plans to fruition through her knowledge of both the Afghan government’s methodologies and its ministers’ approaches to governing and the business sectors’ practices.

In July 2005, with Boston real estate developer, Robert E. Naser, she founded IBS-Afghanistan, an international business services company which provides market entry services and instant office solutions in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the managing partner of IBS-Afghanistan.

Prior to founding Sheffield Advisors, LLC, Virginia was vice president, regulatory for Genuity, a tier-one Internet backbone and e-commerce platform provider.   She is well known for her leadership within the telecommunications industry on policy issues, especially regulation in competitive markets and network interconnection frameworks, and is a published author and frequent international speaker. 

At Genuity, Virginia managed both domestic and international regulatory matters, helping the company implement a two pronged strategy capitalizing on both regulated and unregulated services markets.  She also was instrumental in evaluating alternative domestic interconnection options for Genuity and was a member of the team that successfully separated it from GTE through an IPO in June 2000. Virginia was employed by GTE from 1986 to 2000 when it was the largest U.S. independent telecommunications carrier.  She served in a number of senior-level positions during her career there in both the finance and regulatory departments.

Before joining the private sector, Virginia was director of telecommunications policy at the Iowa Commerce Commission, where she led the state's deregulation of a number of services.  She also conducted primary research on pricing and demand for gas, electric and telecommunications services.  

As principal fiscal analyst for the Iowa General Assembly, Virginia was the recipient of a National Science Foundation/National Conference of State Legislatures research grant to develop a costing model for public school funding.

Virginia is a board member of the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Afghan International Chamber of Commerce, and a trustee of the US Nay Memorial Foundation. She has also served as chairperson of the Michigan State Institute for Public Utilities Executive Committee and Industry Advisory Board. She received her education at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

J. Henry Sheffield

Executive Vice President

Corporate Management and Support

 

Henry Sheffield has many years of experience in both the public and private sectors ranging from general staff line positions through the senior management level.  He has experience in federal, state, and local governmental service and in locally-owned private businesses to large national private and public corporations.

 

His governmental experience ranges from an engineering technician to a senior administrator of a first-in-the-nation joint federal/state trust funded program with the Iowa Department of Transportation.  Within the scope of his governmental positions, Henry has acquired experience in administrative law and its interpretation and enforcement; financial accountability; writing legislation and administrative rules; and chairing public hearings.  In private business his major experience is in the credit and financial analysis sector.  During the financially depressed years of the early 1980s, Henry and his staff successfully maintained a consistent 97% level of current receivables for a national firm with numerous subsidiaries through a program of proactive financial analysis and positive customer relations.

 

Henry has degrees in Technical Agriculture from Iowa State University (ISU) and Political Science from Texas Wesleyan University (TWU).  The emphasis of his political science degree was in international relations and international law.  He has also done graduate work in political science and history at both North Texas State and TWU.  During his years at TWU, Henry authored several independent research papers that were integrated into several of the Department of Political Science’s courses.  Henry is a frequent commentator on current event writings and has been published by the Washington Post, Washington Times, US News and World Report, and the Weekly Standard. He serves on the Board of Directors of the US Navy Memorial Foundation.    

 

Advisors

Maurizio “Moe” Grassia

Senior Advisor

Project Financing, Business Planning and Government Relations

Maurizio “Moe” Grassia joined Sheffield Advisors, LLC in July 2005. Moe’s experience offers our clients varied capital options, including private sector venture capital firms associated with the multilateral agencies and their financial benchmarks and U. S. government agencies such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.  His experience also encompasses interaction with United Nations’ agencies including the U. N. Development Program and the U. N. Treasury.

Prior to becoming a Senior Advisor with Sheffield Advisors, LLC, Moe was a Research Associate with the Fiat Group and its related companies in the structured and export finance areas. Following this, Moe was an independent consultant for both European and American firms specializing in the Middle East and Latin America.  He also has experience in tender identification and preparation for World Bank-financed projects. 

  

Mr. Grassia is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and has an M.S. in Finance from George Washington University.  Moe’s numerous years of experience in project finance in emerging economies and developing markets is a beneficial asset to the Sheffield Advisors’ company and its clients.