Career Biography

Inés is a senior legal executive serving as legal manager at Nestlé Bolivia and a member of its board of directors. With over 14 years of experience, including more than a decade in leadership roles.

She is recognised for operating at the intersection of law, business and strategy in complex and fast-evolving environments.

Her role extends beyond legal, as she also leads corporate affairs and human resources, positioning her as a key member of the executive leadership team. She holds an MBA, which complements her legal expertise with strong commercial acumen and a strategic perspective.

Inés is known for navigating uncertainty with sound judgement and for her ability to recalibrate legal strategy in real time—balancing risk with business priorities while upholding compliance and integrity as non-negotiable standards.

She also serves on the board of directors of the Cámara Nacional de Industrias of Bolivia, reflecting her active engagement with the broader business and regulatory landscape. Through strong relationships with authorities, industry associations and key stakeholders, she ensures that legal decisions are informed by a broader institutional and market context.

Inés represents a modern in-house leader—combining executive influence, strategic vision and pragmatic execution to drive resilient and forward-looking business outcomes.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

In periods of instability, the legal function must evolve beyond reactive risk management into a strategic driver of resilience. My approach is centred on rapidly recalibrating priorities while maintaining an uncompromising focus on what is non-negotiable: compliance and the highest standards of integrity.

Equally critical is fostering clear, disciplined, and transparent communication within the team, ensuring alignment, accountability and the ability to execute effectively under pressure.

A strong understanding of the business allows me to identify the most material areas of exposure—regulatory, operational and reputational—and to support timely, commercially grounded decision-making. This is reinforced through close cross-functional coordination and a deliberate calibration of risk, enabling the organisation to act with speed while protecting its long-term position.

I also view external engagement as a critical strategic asset. Maintaining a trust-based dialogue with authorities and key stakeholders enhances our ability to anticipate regulatory expectations and to navigate uncertainty with credibility. In parallel, active participation in industry associations ensures that decisions are informed by broader market dynamics and aligned with sector responses.

Beyond protecting the organisation, my role is to enhance its ability to perform under pressure—combining agility, sound judgement and institutional connectivity to sustain continuity.

This approach not only supports effective immediate decision-making, but also embeds capabilities that enhance resilience and competitiveness over time.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting? 

Practising in a highly volatile environment such as Bolivia has been one of the most defining aspects of my career. Constant political, economic and social shifts require legal advice to be both technically sound and immediately actionable, often under significant pressure.

In this context, I have been involved in situations where supply constraints or social tensions directly impacted business continuity, requiring us to move quickly from analysis to action.

Working in this environment has strengthened my ability to reassess and redirect legal strategy as conditions evolve, ensuring that advice remains both relevant and actionable. It has also sharpened my judgement to prioritise effectively, distinguishing between critical risks and those that can be managed in support of business objectives. Central to this is a pragmatic approach to compliance, treating it as a non-negotiable foundation while ensuring it is implemented in a way that enables, rather than constrains, business.

At the same time, these experiences have reinforced the importance of external perspective. Building and maintaining trust-based relationships with authorities, industry associations and key stakeholders has been instrumental in navigating regulatory uncertainty and anticipating shifts in the operating environment. This continuous exchange ensures that legal advice is not developed in isolation, but is informed by broader economic, regulatory and social realities.

As a result, I have evolved beyond a purely advisory role into a strategic partner to the business—contributing to decision-making in complex and often high-pressure situations and helping to drive outcomes that are both resilient and sustainable.