About

With extensive experience advising multinational companies and financial entities regarding general corporate, compliance, finance and banking matters, Mariano Juárez Goñi has been serving as the general counsel for 11 years at Petroquímica Comodoro Rivadavia (PCR), which manufactures and markets construction products in Argentina and internationally. As general counsel, Juárez has direct responsibility for all corporate governance and corporate legal matters of the group, including PCR´s operations in Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay as well as compliance with applicable securities laws and listing requirements. He also gives advice to the CEO and senior management in connection with strategic decisions and the day-to-day business, including regulatory and tax matters of the group related to oil and gas, renewable energy and cement and construction industries. During the past few years, the legal team has grown substantially due to new responsibilities assumed and has created different tailor made software to register internal information, such as litigation, corporate records, agreements, and landowners (applicable to oil and gas fields). When talking about his in-house career, Juárez highlights his involvement in the opening of a new business segment in Argentina – renewable energies and the participation of PCR in the RenovAr public bids. He explains ‘those events forced me to face a lot of changes and adapt to the new scenario. In fact, I had to be on top of the brand new regulatory framework applicable to the industry, as well as having knowledge of the tax benefits applicable to these projects. It really was an important challenge’. Juárez and his team have also contributed largely in various transactions for PCR in recent years. For example, he led the acquisition of the remaining 60% of PCR’s oil and gas business in Ecuador as well as related financing matters at the same time. ‘It was a very complex transaction involving very different jurisdictions and actors located in Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, the US and the UK’, he explains. Before joining PCR, Juárez worked at Bruchou from 1998 to 2007 as a senior associate in the international corporate and banking team, advising local and foreign clients on a range of issues including international equity and debt offerings, debt restructuring transactions, and asset backed securities.