Team size : 17

What piece of work or project over the past year are you most proud of, and why was it particularly significant for the business?

Over the last seven years, I have been particularly proud of leading the comprehensive legal and regulatory strategy supporting the development of Gas y Petroquímica de Occidente’s ammonia project (USD 2 billion) in Topolobampo, Sinaloa. This is a large-scale industrial project involving numerous interconnected legal workstreams, including environmental and energy regulation, port and railway infrastructure, land rights, corporate and contractual matters, as well as highly significant constitutional and administrative litigation.

The complexity of this work lies in the fact that each of these components is closely connected. A regulatory decision, permit, infrastructure agreement or court ruling can directly affect the project’s schedule, costs and overall continuity. My responsibility has therefore been to establish a common strategy for the entire legal and regulatory function, define priorities, anticipate risks and ensure that legal decisions remain aligned with the company’s technical, operational and commercial objectives.

This has also required coordinating our internal team, specialist external counsel, the project’s technical and corporate areas, and its international stakeholders, while maintaining institutional engagement with authorities at the federal, state and municipal levels. An important part of my role has been translating highly complex legal and regulatory matters into clear, practical information that supports executive decision-making.

I am proud that our legal and regulatory function has continued to support the project with an integrated perspective, maintaining progress across its different workstreams and responding strategically to a particularly demanding legal, regulatory and social environment. Beyond its importance to the company, the project has the potential to contribute to regional economic development and strengthen Mexico’s fertiliser supply chain, giving our work a broader purpose.

Have you been involved in any initiatives to improve legal processes, introduce new ways of working or make the legal function more efficient?

One of my main priorities has been to build a more preventive, coordinated and business-oriented legal and regulatory function. In a project involving multiple permits, proceedings, contracts, authorities and advisers, it is not sufficient to manage each matter in isolation. An integrated approach is essential to understand how a legal or regulatory risk could affect other components of the project.

With this objective in mind, we have strengthened our internal monitoring and reporting mechanisms through consolidated tracking matrices covering litigation, permits, regulatory obligations and critical commitments. These tools help us identify responsibilities, relevant deadlines, dependencies between matters and their potential impact on the business. We have also introduced clearer executive reporting so that senior management can understand not only the procedural or regulatory status of a matter, but also its practical consequences and any decisions required.

We have also promoted closer coordination between the legal, regulatory, technical and operational teams. This allows the legal function to become involved at the earliest stages of a decision, rather than only after a dispute has arisen. The result has been stronger documentary preparation, earlier risk identification and greater consistency in the company’s institutional position before authorities, courts and other stakeholders.

I believe that the efficiency of a legal department should not be measured only by how quickly it responds, but also by its ability to prevent problems, preserve institutional knowledge and provide solutions that can be implemented in practice.

What excites you most about the future of the in-house legal profession, and where do you hope to continue developing your career?

What excites me most is the evolution of the in-house lawyer into a genuine strategic business partner. Legal and regulatory teams are increasingly becoming involved at earlier stages of project planning, investment assessment and corporate decision-making. This enables lawyers to move beyond reacting to problems and to contribute actively to preventing them and developing sustainable solutions.

Technology and artificial intelligence also offer important opportunities to improve legal research, document review, regulatory monitoring and knowledge management. However, these tools must be combined with professional judgement, human oversight, ethical responsibility and a thorough understanding of the business.

Looking ahead, I hope to continue developing as a leader of multidisciplinary legal and regulatory teams, particularly in connection with complex infrastructure, energy, industrial and environmental projects. My goal is to continue building a modern legal function that protects the company, enables responsible investment, earns the trust of stakeholders and delivers measurable value to the business.