Team size: Eleven

What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

Over the past year, our legal team has been deeply involved in projects that combine regulatory compliance, operational continuity, and strategic growth across multiple jurisdictions in Central and South America.

One of the most significant initiatives has been the strengthening of our competition law and antitrust compliance framework, particularly in anticipation of new regulatory developments in the region. This included developing internal policies, risk matrices by business line, and structured processes to support business expansion while ensuring regulatory readiness.

We have also played a central role in implementing environmental and sustainability-related requirements, particularly those linked to international supply chain regulations and deforestation-related standards. These projects required close coordination with operations, sustainability, and commercial teams to integrate legal obligations directly into contracts, land use documentation, and supplier relationships.

Additionally, the team has been supporting the company’s diversification into new business lines and jurisdictions. This has involved structuring transactions, managing cross-border regulatory matters, and strengthening governance frameworks to ensure scalable and compliant growth.

While many of these matters are commercially sensitive, they reflect the evolving role of the legal function as a strategic partner that enables expansion while safeguarding the organisation’s long-term resilience.

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

During periods of instability, whether regulatory, operational, or geopolitical, our approach is guided by three principles: anticipation, coordination, and clarity.

First, we prioritise early risk identification through continuous monitoring of regulatory and operational developments across the jurisdictions where we operate. This allows us to shift from reactive legal support to proactive risk management.

Second, coordination is essential. In times of crisis, the legal function must act as a central connector between leadership, operations, finance, and sustainability teams. Clear communication channels and predefined escalation protocols allow decisions to be made quickly while maintaining compliance and accountability.

Third, clarity in decision-making is critical. We focus on translating complex legal risks into practical business guidance, enabling leadership to act with confidence even in uncertain conditions.

Ultimately, resilience is not built during a crisis, it is built beforehand through governance, preparedness, and trust between the legal team and the business.

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. What does being strategic mean to you?

To me, being strategic as a general counsel means understanding the business as deeply as the law and using legal insight to enable growth rather than restrict it.

Strategy in the legal function is not about reacting to problems; it is about anticipating them, aligning legal priorities with business objectives, and building systems that allow the organisation to scale safely.

It also means focusing on long-term value. This includes investing in governance, developing strong teams, and positioning the legal department as a trusted advisor in decision-making processes.

In practical terms, being strategic means ensuring that legal is present at the planning stage of major initiatives, not only at the approval stage. That shift transforms legal from a control function into a driver of sustainable growth.

What do you think is the greatest innovation you have enacted in the past year?

One of the most impactful innovations we have implemented has been the transition toward structured contract lifecycle management processes within the legal department.

Rather than treating contracts as isolated documents, we are building a system that manages the full lifecycle of contractual relationships, from negotiation to execution, monitoring, and renewal. This shift improves visibility, reduces risk, and allows the organisation to make faster, more informed decisions.

Equally important, this transformation is changing the culture of the legal function. It is moving the team from a document-focused model to a data-driven model, where legal information becomes a strategic asset for the business.