Team size: 45

Career Biography

Executive with over 20 years of experience, both in an office and in a company. He was a lawyer at Pinheiro Neto Advogados, legal manager at Braskem S.A., legal director at Totvs S.A., legal director at Atvos, legal director at Construtora Norberto Odebrecht and legal director at Odebrecht. He was a counsellor at Santo Antonio Energia S.A. Luciano graduated in Law from Universidade de São Paulo, where he completed his master’s degree in Civil Law. He has a specialisation in Consumer Law from Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, a Master of Laws in Corporate Law from Insper and took the course for Board of Directors, Audit Committee, Supervision and Internal Controls and Corporate Governance in Startups at Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa. Luciano is certified in internal investigation by LEC and completed the controls, risk compliance and internal audit course at KPMG University. He took the Xponential Business Administration-Startse and the Analytical Thinking course at MIT. He is currently attending the Cambridge Senior Management Programme. He was president of the Brazilian Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, vice-president of the Legal Committee of the Brazilian Association of Public Companies and member of the Ethics Committee of the Order of Attorneys of Brazil/ Brazil Association. He is currently Legal, compliance and risk director at Copa Energia and member of the Audit Committee.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

The legal department plays a fundamental role in crisis prevention, acting to prevent business risks from materialising. Once a crisis has occurred, the legal department remains at the forefront of several areas, such as participating in the crisis committee, liaising with authorities, responding to official letters and demands, supporting communication with all stakeholders,actively participating in negotiations and mediation, ensuring that governance rules are maintained and ensuring that the rules are followed, while also supporting decisions to be made quickly, ensuring business continuity while mitigating legal exposure.

Considering that Copa Energia operates in a regulated sector, regulatory risks are extremely relevant. The legal department will certainly play a major role in case of an eventual regulatory crisis.

What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?

The most important project I have recently participated in was related to the acquisition of Liquigas Distribuidora de Gás Liquefeito do Petróleo, a company controlled by Petrobras, by Copa Energia. Liquigas was acquired for R$3.7 bn by Petrobras. After the purchase, Copa Energia became the leader in the liquefied petroleum gas market in Brazil.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?

Copa Energia is the largest liquefied petroleum oil producer in Brazil and its strategy is to actively participate in Brazil’s energy transition with an increasing focus on cleaner and more sustainable energy. In this regard, sustainability is at the core of our business strategy, guiding our operations, decision-making, and long-term vision.

Since its merger with Liquigas, Copa Energia has expanded its commitments related to sustainability. As a current market leader, the organisation understands its role and strives to engage stakeholders that are part of the business ecosystem, intending to positively influence behaviors and providing actions in the direction to sustainable development.

In 2022, the company established guidelines and built Copa Energia sustainability strategy, containing subjects and drivers delivering public goals aligned with the challenges of the UN’s 2030 agenda (SDGs). Based on a double materiality process, four topics were established, protecting the company’s assets by anticipating risks and identifying opportunities aligned with the highest performance standards. Those topics are supported by four pillars focussed on “Ethics and Governance”, “Health and Security of our People”, “Environment” and “Responsible Supply Chain”, with easily verifiable time-based and numerical goals. The first results have already been evaluated and can be known in the annual sustainability report – www.copaenergia.com.br/sustentabilidade.

As the legal, compliance and risk director, I play a key role to ensure that the company complies with all legal and regulatory requirements, adequately manages risks and opportunities related to sustainability, reports internally and externally in its sustainability report and financial statements in an appropriate and transparent manner our indicators and targets on the topic, and performs due diligence on its suppliers and customers to ensure compliance with sustainability rules and practices.

Furthermore, I play a relevant role as a guardian of corporate governance and in this regard I am responsible for ensuring that sustainability is addressed in the appropriate corporate instances and with the necessary prominence.