Career Biography

With 23 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, energy transition, 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 organizational culture and working in negotiating solid agreements by minimizing 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 changes in the corporate landscape at Lorinvest and its invested companies. 

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

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.

Last year we were involved in the US$120mn 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 recognized 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, minimize 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. We are very excited with the coming future and how the environment and the communities will benefit from this technology.

The other M&A we were involved in last year was the acquisition, by Copa Energia, of 36% of the stake in GNLink, a controlled entity of Lorinvest. GNLink is a natural gas distributor that operates in the liquid and gaseous gases segment with a focus on energy transition and seeks to take natural gas to areas where gas are not yet available, in a competitive, safe and sustainable manner.

What new pressures are you facing from the business as expectations for legal to act as a strategic partner continue to grow?

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. 

I have worked towards building trust, spreading and inspiring ethical behaviours, fortifying the reputational image of Lorinvest and its organizational culture and working in negotiating solid agreements by minimizing 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 sustainable practices into its core business operations tends to be more resilient to face crisis, uncertainty, and instability.

How is your organisation adapting to the rapid evolution of data protection, AI governance and cybersecurity requirements in Brazil?

The evolution of data protection, AI governance and cybersecurity requirements is very dynamic. We have been focused on improving governance and compliance procedures. By addressing sensitive issues and legal protection by bringing proactive initiatives we 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.