About

An intelligent in-house lawyer with a talent for innovation, Alejandro Nájera started his career as an advisor to a financial corporation in Guatemala and was initially appointed to formalise financial structures. Nájera was then transferred to the litigation department and took charge of judicial proceedings regarding the group’s insurance and bonding company, as well as portfolio loans recovery proceedings. He continued his career as a corporate and contract expert in the Spanish global telecommunications company Telefónica, before moving to the Mexican beverage company Coca-Cola FEMSA to work for its Central America operation as legal executive. Nájera currently works as one of Bayer’s legal affairs managers for Central America and the Caribbean and has local and regional responsibilities within the legal department. Having been in the role for just over a year, Nájera has distinguished himself with his impressive contribution to the digitisation within the legal function. As a result of his efforts, digital and automated tools have been implemented in order to mitigate legal risks and gain legal certainty, ultimately allowing for improved workload within the legal team. Some of the most impressive tools implemented have been online Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) legal requirement matrixes for production sites and an automatic notification system to changes in legislation regarding HSE requirements. In addition, Nájera has impressed with his contribution to the company overall by introducing legal economics, elaborating and implementing brand protection and anticompetitive practices and providing legal strategy and operational support to the restructuring of the product distribution model in the region. Nájera says: ‘I am particularly proud of the public acknowledgment within the organisations in which I worked that a legal economics problem-solving method is the most efficient way to resolve legal issues, since efficiency has a direct impact in the business results. Only then can an in-house legal department constitute a strategic partner’.