Career Biography

Diego joined the Telefónica Group in 2000. Since 2021, he is the General Counsel of Telefónica Tech.

Previously, he served as General Counsel of Telefónica Hispanoamérica, Telefónica Latinoamérica, as well as Telefónica Open Future (the venture capital business unit). Earlier, he served as Deputy General Counsel of Telefónica Latinoamérica, based in São Paulo (Brazil); General Counsel of Telefónica Mexico, in Mexico City (Mexico); and Legal Director of Telefónica Internacional and Business Legal Director of the Terra Lycos Group, in Madrid (Spain).

Before joining the Telefónica Group, he worked in national and international law firms.

He holds a law degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a master’s degree in computer science and law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He also completed postgraduate studies in Germany at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

He has been a professor, lecturer, and columnist across different LL.M. and master’s programs, events, and media, with a focus on the law of new technologies.

Diego has over two decades of experience providing legal advice and strategic counsel related to the telecommunications business in Latin America, with a focus on negotiating material contracts, regulatory matters, M&A, and dispute resolution. During this period, he supported Telefónica in creatively reshaping its operating model in the region through strategic infrastructure and co-investment material agreements. He also led several investment arbitrations, achieving reasonable settlements with local governments and a favorable award worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Over the past five years, he has shifted from providing legal advice and managing telecom and B2C businesses to providing legal advice on the delivery of cybersecurity, cloud, Internet of Things, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence services to the B2B segment. He has helped position Telefónica Tech as a leading IT unicorn by completing significant M&A transactions in Europe, supporting its accelerated growth and the restructuring of its global footprint. In the ordinary course of business, he has negotiated major IT agreements with key clients and technology partners.

Diego has successfully led multicultural legal teams over the years and is widely regarded as a business-oriented lawyer with an extensive technological and financial knowledge that allows him to be a constructive contributor and key team player in senior executive teams. He has served on several Executive Committees of different business units in senior legal roles throughout his tenure at the Telefónica Group.