Private equity to shrimp welfare: Mid-career transitions in EA with Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla

By frances_lorenz @ 2025-07-21T10:59 (+64)

Hi everyone! This post is the first in a series of four profiles on mid-career transitions in EA. Andrés very kindly allowed me to interview him on his shift from private equity to shrimp welfare. I think it takes a lot of courage to make drastic career changes, especially those that result in significant pay cuts and uncertainty. I hope this series is helpful to those considering it! And separately, I found it really lovely to hear how excited each person was about EA. 

Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla | Philanthropy Consultant at Open Philanthropy, Co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project

Andrés Jiménez Zorilla originally spent 15 years in investment banking and real estate private equity, leading the Iberian business for a European real estate fund and working in global finance hubs like London, New York, and Qatar. While the work was intellectually demanding in some ways (structuring deals, scaling companies, negotiating complex transactions), he also found that the bulk of his time was spent on presentations and red tape. More importantly, there was a growing dissonance between his values and his day-to-day work.

“At first, the financial rewards made me not care about many other things,” Andrés recalls. “But over time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was just making rich people richer. It didn’t feel like my calling.”

In 2018, he left finance in search of something more meaningful. With a longstanding interest in animal welfare, Andrés initially explored working with alternative protein companies and briefly considered starting a farmed animal sanctuary. Then, one day, his wife, a social worker who’d spent her career supporting refugees and incarcerated women, forwarded him an email about Charity Entrepreneurship. Run by Ambitious Impact, the program provides funding, ideas, and training to help participants found their own charities. “This sounds like you,” she said. 

The program’s emphasis on evidence and cost-effectiveness immediately resonated. Andrés started working his way through EA reading lists and eventually applied to Charity Entrepreneurship’s 2021 incubator cohort. Though originally skeptical about one of the more neglected ideas, shrimp welfare, he changed his mind after reading the data. “Three pages into the research, I was hooked. The scale, the tractability, the complete lack of existing work, I thought, ‘I need to do this.’”

And so, he co-founded the Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) with Aaron Boddy that same year.

Launching such an unusual nonprofit was challenging. Shrimp were a species he knew nothing about. The animal advocacy sector was new to him. He didn’t know his co-founder. But Andrés brought with him skills from finance that proved surprisingly relevant: analytical thinking, stakeholder engagement, corporate communications, and the ability to negotiate. These skills shaped the project’s early strategy of engaging large retailers on welfare reform, rather than confronting industry head-on. “We had to tread carefully. If we came in too aggressively, we risked setting the entire cause back. But we found a way to open doors.”

Andrés is proud that shrimp welfare is now a regular topic at industry conferences, and that multiple approaches to reform, including corporate campaigns, are gaining traction. “We didn’t want to accidentally cause harm,” he says. “For example, one possible intervention would have involved increasing oxygen levels in ponds to improve the environment for shrimp. But, we realised this would potentially just allow the environment to sustain more shrimp, encouraging farmers to increase breeding. Being strategic about risks was crucial.”

In 2025, after stepping back from SWP, Andrés began a new role at Open Philanthropy, where he helps connect philanthropists to high-impact opportunities in animal welfare and AI safety.

He credits his wife for encouraging the switch long before he made it. “We had this strange dissonance at home,” he says. “She was working to make the world better, and I was at Morgan Stanley. Sometimes I’d leave work and see her outside at Occupy Wall Street protests.” By the time he finally quit, she was fully on board, and their financial planning over the years meant the risk felt manageable. “Having a financial runway really helped. It made the leap psychologically and practically possible.”

Looking back, Andrés describes the move into EA as life-changing, both professionally and personally. “The meaning I get from my work now more than makes up for any sacrifices. I didn’t expect how good it would feel.” He also discovered something he didn’t realize he’d been missing: community. “In 15 years in finance, I made maybe three close friends. In EA and the animal movement, I’ve made dozens. These are people I trust, admire, and love seeing at events. They’re uber collaborative, honest, supportive, intellectually curious. I feel like I found my tribe.”

Andrés’ advice for others considering a similar shift:

Take it seriously, but don’t wait forever. Save if you can. Talk to people. Reach out. “I feel like my life is so much better from having made this switch, I really want to encourage people to consider it. Everyone I asked for help made time for me,” he says. “And now I try to do the same. I’m very happy to be contacted.”

If you’re in a similar position to Andrés and need help talking through a potential transition, please do consider reaching out to him. He’s absolutely lovely to talk with, you can message him on LinkedIn.