Bio

With 22 years of in-house experience, Pilar Perez is a business-oriented legal counsel with strong experience in M&A transactions, corporate governance and capital market issues related to the asset manager and the investment funds. She also leads the corporate ethics, compliance and human resources areas.

Perez has been involved in M&A transactions that brings up possibilities to innovate industry segments such as the shipping industry, the forestry sector as well as new technologies that aims at addressing challenges such as mining waste, biofouling reduction, among others.

Over the last years she has worked on innovative and scalable projects which are committed to environmental, social and economic sustainable principles, long term vision and that have the potential to transform the communities where Lorinvest do business, thereby creating wealth in a sustainable way.

In turn, Lorinvest as a company, undergoes a transformative journey, becoming guardian of the environment, broadening horizons, and sowing the seeds of new possibilities.

As an executive legal director, she has worked towards building trust, spreading and inspiring ethical behaviours, fortifying the reputational image of Lorinvest and its organisational culture and working in negotiating solid agreements by minimising risks and generating value for investors.

She believes systemic vision, strategic thinking and active listening are important to build a closer collaboration relationship between legal departments and business counterparts and help the companies to be better positioned. Collaboration, empathy, coherence and consistency are key skills to move the business forward. Pilar is passionate about bringing proactive initiatives that aim at fostering ethics and business responsibility and sustainability with a commitment to driving positive change in the corporate landscape at Lorinvest and its invested companies.

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

Over the last years we have worked on innovative and scalable projects which are committed to environmental, social and economic sustainable principles and strong growth potential.

At Lorinvest we focus on building business that can disrupt sectors by bringing sustainable elements, long term vision that can transform the communities where we do business, by creating wealth in a sustainable way.

The most recent transaction we have been involved in is the US$120 million funding round of New Wave, a controlled entity of Lorinvest. New Wave is a global company focused on developing innovative, sustainable solutions and low-cost technologies for the mining-metallurgical sector.

New Wave’s breakthrough technologies have been recognised with four green patents by the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). Designed with a strong sustainability focus, these solutions significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, minimise water consumption, and promote a circular economy. A key feature among them is the use of microwaves for an unprecedented segregation of different strategic minerals.

New Wave has developed a process that allows the recovery of minerals from bauxite residues, giving a use to a residue that is currently useless and needs to be stored by aluminum producing companies. 180 million tons of bauxite waste are produced each year, of which only 4 million are used. In total, there are 4 billion tons of bauxite stored unused in the world. We are very excited with the coming future and how the environment and the communities will benefit from this technology.

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?

I have worked towards building trust, spreading and inspiring ethical behaviours, fortifying the reputational image of Lorinvest and its organisational culture and working in negotiating solid agreements by minimising risks and generating value for investors.

By doing this I believe I can help the companies to create the framework for a more sustainable relationship with stakeholders which thus can generate greater value for all of them. A company that adopts ESG practices tends to be more resilient to face crisis, uncertainty, and instability.

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?

I believe that systemic vision, strategic thinking and active listening are important to build a closer collaboration relationship between the legal departments and my business counterparts and help the companies to be better positioned. Collaboration, empathy, coherence and consistency are key skills to move the business forward.

Also, by understanding the strategies and the positive and negative externalities of the companies, lawyers can work on improving governance and compliance procedures and focus on addressing sensitive issues and legal protections.

The legal department can also collaborate with the business counterparts by helping the director, officers and representatives of the entities to act in compliance with the duty of care.

I am passionate about bringing proactive initiatives that aim at fostering ethics and business responsibility and sustainability with a commitment to driving positive change in the corporate landscape at Lorinvest and its invested companies.