Chile 2017 – GC Powerlist
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Chile 2017

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Alan Moya Dupre

Legal counsel and regional compliance officer LATAM | SNC-Lavalin

One of the most impressive achievements in Alan Moya’s legal career has been fundamentally altering the culture of SNC-Lavalin Group in Chile, introducing legal training to employees across the company....

Alberto Vergara

Deputy legal counsel and head of litigation and regulation | BBVA Chile

The Spanish-headquartered global banking company BBVA began operating in Chile in 1998 by acquiring BHIF Bank and AFP Provida the following year. At around the same time Alberto Vergara was...

Alberto Zavala

General counsel | AES GENER

A skilled negotiator with 20 years of experience as an in-house lawyer in Chile, seven of which were spent in the energy sector, Alberto Zavala currently serves as general counsel...

Alejandro A. Rubilar

Senior country counsel Chile | J.P. Morgan

‘He is a very competent general counsel who manages a broad range of issues with creativity and innovation. Working with him on complex matters is simply a privilege’, one source...

Alejandro Barack Canut De Bon Lagos

Manager of legal and compliance | Lumina Copper Chile

With a track record of advancing exploration and development projects in Latin America, Lumina Copper has significant presence in the region, developing and operating resources in some of the most...

Alfredo del Carril

General counsel and head of business development | Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP)

Empresa Nacional del Petróleo, or ENAP, is a state-owned hydrocarbons company, which has been charged with the exploration, production, refinement and marketing of Chile’s oil deposits since the 1950s. As...

Alvaro Larraín

General counsel | Banco Consorcio

Financials

Consorcio Financiero is a leading financial services group in Chile, engaged in a wide range of activities that manages a total of $13bn in assets. In charge of the legal...

Alvaro Lavín

Legal affairs manager | Empresas La Polar

Empresas la Polar is the fourth largest retail company in Chile, operating 43 stores and offering a wide assortment of consumer products. The company also provides a range of other...

Ana María Emilfork

General Counsel | Maersk Chile

For Maersk, the Danish business conglomerate, Chile represents a significant proportion of its maritime container business. Founded in 1993, Maersk Chile’s line of business includes the transportation of freight on...

Andrea Convalia

General counsel | L’Oréal Chile

Andrea Convalia’s three-year tenure at global consumer products company L’Oréal has been defined by her widespread impact on the Chilean legal department and the wider company. She has enhanced the...

Andrés Curia

Head of legal services | Mainstream Renewable Power Chile

Known as one of the most formidable lawyers in Chile’s renewable energy sector, Andrés Curia currently leads a team of four employees at the multinational renewable energy development company Mainstream...

Andres Eyzaguirre

General counsel Chile | Nestlé Chile

Andres Eyzaguirre, the ‘excellent’ general counsel at Nestlé Chile boasts 15 years of experience as an in-house and private practice lawyer and has been educated across Chile, Switzerland and Italy....

Andres Lopez Campos

Legal manager | Abertis Autopistas Chile

‘A leader with an enormous capacity of handling complex legal problems’, Andres Lopez Campos heads the legal department of Abertis Autopistas Chile, a subsidiary of the Spanish conglomerate corporation Abertis...

Andres Palacios

General counsel | LG Chile

Andres Palacios is a legal professional in charge of managing all legal and compliance matters of LG Electronics in Chile. With a demonstrated capacity to minimise all legal risks to...

Andres Veszpremy

General counsel | Provida

Founded in 1981 with the launch of Chile’s modern private pension system, ProVida functions as the manager of pension funds in the country. Andres Veszpremy Schilling has been in charge...

Aníbal Prieto Larrain

Chief legal counsel | ENGIE ENERGÍA CHILE

Almost since the beginning of his legal career, Aníbal Prieto Larrain has been involved in energy deals and the construction projects of energy related facilities. Starting out as a private...

Anita Munoz

Corporate lawyer and compliance | Nissan Chile

The beginnings of Nissan’s history in Chile go back to 1962, when its Datsun model was installed as the first automobile manufacturer in the city of Arica. The Japanese automobile...

Boris Gonzalez

Legal manager | GNL Chile

GNL Chile is the importer and marketer of liquefied natural gas for Central and Southern Chile, providing natural gas services to wholesale customers with long-term contracts. Partially owned by ENAP,...

Carlos Prat Guarachi

Legal manager | GLENCORE CHILE

Glencore, the Swiss multinational mining company, has a significant presence in Chile’s extensive network of copper mines. When the company took over Xstrata in 2013 to create one of the...

Carmen Román

General counsel | WALMART CHILE

Walmart Chile is one of the main players in the national retail industry, selling food and merchandise through various supermarket brands, including Lider, Express of LIDER, Lider.ch, Ekono, SuperBodega aCUenta...

Carolina Carrasco

General counsel Latam Pacific | ALSTOM CHILE

General counsel of Alstom Chile for the last 14 years, Carolina Carrasco provides legal advice to the company’s wide array of complex infrastructure projects in Chile, assisting with the negotiation...

Cristián Maturana Miquel

Legal manager | Entel

With revenue of almost $3bn, Entel is the largest telecommunications company in Chile, operating mobile phone networks, landlines and internet connectivity. Originally created by the Chilean government in 1964, the...

Cristián Toro Cañas

General counsel | Itaú CorpBanca

Headquartered in Santiago, Itaú CorpBanca is the largest commercial bank in Chile and is owned by Itaú Unibanco, the largest Latin American bank by assets. Itaú CorpBanca operates almost 400...

Cristóbal Quezada

Legal manager | PepsiCo Chile

Food, beverages and tobacco

PepsiCo has been present in Chile for more than 30 years and currently provides a broad portfolio of well-known food and beverage products, such as Lay’s, Quaker, Pepsi, Twistos, Gatorade...

Daniel Weinstein

Legal manager, Projects and Supply – Minerals Americas | BHP BILLITON

Having spent over eight years in private practice for both Chilean and international law firms, Daniel Weinstein decided that he wanted more impact by working in-house rather than as an...

Diego Aedo de la Cuadra

General counsel | Resister

Resiter operates waste management services throughout Chile, and in recent years it has expanded its services to new sectors such as forestry, oil, aquaculture, dairy, food, retail, agro-industrial, and entered...

Diego Corp Hoces de la Guardia

General counsel and director of technical services | HydroChile

After eight years litigating in civil and criminal matters in Chile, Diego Corp Hoces de la Guardia realised that he was capable of helping clients unlock the value of infrastructure...

Diego Peró Ovalle

General counsel | SalfaCorp

Diego Peró Ovalle has implemented several changes in the management of the legal team at SalfaCorp, one of the largest and most important Chilean construction and real estate companies. To...

Domingo Valdés Prieto

General counsel | ENEL AMÉRICAS

Domingo Valdés is one of the most outstanding general counsel in Chile. For more than 17 years he has been head of the corporate and legal affairs department at Enel...

Duncan Grob Urzúa

Corporate legal manager | Parque Arauco

Heading a team of 14, Duncan Grob Urzúa manages the legal affairs for Parque Arauco. With 31 shopping malls spread across Chile, Colombia and Peru the company is one of...

Eduardo Frei

Chief legal counsel | CAP

The CAP Group is a holding company that operates in the mining and steel sectors. Through its operations over the world the company’s value chain covers iron-ore mining, steel production...

Enrique Ortuzar

General counsel | Concha y Toro

With revenues close to $1bn, not only is Concha y Toro Latin America’s biggest wine producer it also one of the leading companies in the global market for wine. It...

Enzo Ferrari Montofré

Director of legal and regulatory | Energia 360

Formerly legal head at SunEdison Chile and SunEdison South America, Enzo Ferrari Montofré is an in-house legal professional with extensive experience in all matters related to civil, commercial and public...

Felipe Benavides

Legal affairs manager | Compañía Cervecerías Unidas (CCU)

CCU is a Chilean diversified beverage company with operations in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Colombia. With over $2bn in annual revenue, it is Chile’s largest brewer, its largest...

Felipe Bunster

Chief legal advisor | Mutual de Seguridad

In May 2017 Felipe Bunster joined Mutual de Seguridad, a mutual healthcare company committed to being leaders in the development of social security in Chile, to head a legal team...

Felipe Guzmán

General counsel | ARAUCO

As the general counsel of the largest Latin American forestry business in terms of surface area and plantation yield, Felipe Guzmán heads up the legal support of five strategic business...

Francisco Charlín

Legal director Chile | Barrick Gold Corporation

Described as a ‘uniquely talented attorney’, Francisco Charlín’s tenure as Barrick Gold legal director has been characterised by his remarkable work ethic. ‘There seems to be no hour at which...

Francisco Javier Allendes,

Legal director | Teck

Praised for his strong leadership, Francisco Javier Allendes oversees various complex processes of Teck’s large operations in Chile, which include the Quebrada Blanca copper mines in the Tarapacá region and...

Francisco Javier Hernández Merino

Legal affairs manager | Williamson Balfour Motors (BMW Chile)

A corporate lawyer with a decade worth of professional experience in both national and multinational companies and a solid grasp of policy and regulatory issues in the Latin American automotive...

Gianpaolo Peirano

General counsel | DirecTV Chile

As the first telecommunications company to offer direct-to-home satellite service in Latin America, DirecTV currently holds a leading position in the Chilean home entertainment market. Joining the company in 2014,...

Gonzalo Aguirre

General counsel | SQM

Gonzalo Aguirre is a Chilean lawyer with a wealth of experience of providing advice to both local and international companies with a specific focus on financial transactions, energy and corporate...

Gonzalo Smith

Corporate manager of legal affairs and governance | Falabella

Widely praised for his ‘bright legal mind’ and ‘high executive ability’, Gonzalo Smith is a legal professional with over 20 years of experience both in-house and in private practice. Praised...

Gustavo G. Mármol Alioto

Legal director, commercial and privacy and security Latin America | Oracle Chile

Gustavo G. Mármol Alioto has been at the helm of the Chilean legal department of Oracle since its foundation in January 2014. He currently holds a dual role of head...

Hernán Felipe Velasco

In-house legal counsel | Andes Mining & Energy

Andes Mining & Energy is a Chilean power producer with assets in operation and development across Chile and Peru. It was founded in January 2008, when it began developing its...

Hernán Silva Villalobos

General counsel | Mall Plaza

Mall Plaza, the Chilean chain of malls owned by Falabella, first opened its doors in 1990 just outside Santiago. Today it is one of the country’s biggest companies and operates...

Ignacio Quiñones

General counsel | ENEL GENERACIÓN CHILE

Operating a total generating capacity of 6,351 MW, Enel Generación Chile is one of the country’s largest electricity generator. Around two thirds of its operations are focused on hydroelectric production,...

Ivana Domitrovic

Legal manager South America | Indura SA Air Products Group

As the legal manager for South America of Indura and the most senior lawyer in the region, Ivana Domitrovic reports to the regional vice president and to the assistant general...

Jaime Luarte Julio

Chief counsel | ARAUCO

Jaime Luarte Julio was hired by ARAUCO Group in 2011 to develop the contractual area of its legal department. The task at hand was a tremendous challenge for Luarte, not...

Jean Paul Azaro

Head of legal and compliance officer | Alcon

Jean Paul Azaro is described by colleagues as a creative team player, capable of adequately responding to the pressure associated with working on complex projects in the mining and pharmaceutical...

Jorge Julio

Legal head and compliance officer | Roche Chile

Upon joining multinational healthcare company Roche in 2015 as legal head and compliance officer for Chile, Jorge Julio has transformed a small legal department of two attorneys into an enthusiastic,...

Jose Ignacio Merino

Regional compliance director – Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia | Abbott Laboratories

Jose Ignacio Merino has 16 years of legal experience in the mining, financial services and healthcare industries. A skilled negotiator and specialist in legal and compliance frameworks, Merino boasts industry-wide...

José Pedro Urrutia

General counsel Chile | ANGLO AMERICAN

Known as an ‘exceptional GC: dynamic and proactive with a unique understanding of both the mining industry and the relevant legal issues’, José Pedro Urrutia has been at Anglo American...

José Tomás Guzmán Rencoret

Corporate counsel and secretary of the board of directors | Empresas Copec

Throughout its 80 year history, Empresas Copec has been involved in large-scale investment programs. The company now operates in two main industries, covering more than 80 countries and generating over...

Juan Carlos Corvalán Reyes

Legal affairs and corporate social responsibility manager | Sodimac

Part of the Falabella group of companies, Sodimac is a leader in the home improvement market with warehouse stores across Latin America. Juan Carlos Corvalán joined the company in 2004,...

Juan Carlos Mencio

Senior vice president of legal affairs | LATAM Airlines Group

LATAM Airlines Group’s Juan Carlos Mencio has been praised for his ‘perceptive legal mind and unique insights’ and his ability to ‘focus his team on being productive and ensuring top-line...

Juan Eduardo Naylor Razeto

General counsel and lead power generation lawyer | Siemens Chile

As general counsel and power generation lead lawyer at Siemens Chile, Juan Eduardo Naylor Razeto provides support to the company’s mining and energy business lines in the country. In this...

Juan Esteban Laval Zaldivar

General counsel | Banking Association of Chile

Financials

The Banking Association of Chile plays an important role in bringing together the domestic and international financial institutions that operate in Chile’s banking community. In addition to analysing new banking...

Juan Pablo Araya

General counsel | Banco Central de Chile

Financials

Like other Central Banks, Banco Central de Chile is tasked with ensuring the stability of the national currency as well as the financial system as a whole. Juan Pablo Araya...

Juan Pablo Suffiotti

General counsel | Echeverría Izquierdo Montajes Industriales

Juan Pablo Suffiotti joined the leading Chilean construction company Echeverría Izquierdo Montajes Industriales (EIMISA) to support the company’s growth strategy by leading an in-house legal department. His task, from the...

Karin Ioannidis

Legal counsel, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Health & Vegetable Seeds Legal Business Partner Chile | Bayer

Bayer officially began its activities in Chile in 1914, with its first corporate building built the Vicuña Mackenna industrial district in 1957. Currently its operations in Chile cover the areas...

Loreto Urqueta

Corporate affairs, legal and compliance head | Novartis Chile

Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis, established itself in Chile 1996 and has since gained a significant share in a number of markets by launching new and bestselling products in the...

Luis Andrés Ulloa M.

Legal manager | Energía Llaima

Luis Andrés Ulloa M. is widely seen as ‘one of the most hard-working general counsel in the industry’, which is perhaps not surprising given the abundance of impressive achievements in...

María de Lourdes Velásquez

Head of legal | Kimberly-Clark Chile

Kimberly-Clark, the US-based global hygiene products company which produces numerous distinguished personal and baby care brands including Huggies and Kleenex, entered Chile in 1994 and currently operates a production plant...

Mario Larenas

Legal director | Freeport-McMoRan South América

Recognised as an in-house counsel capable of participating in complex projects and always being able to generate creative and efficient solutions, Mario Larenas has led Freeport-McMoRan’s legal department in Chile...

Matias Concha Vial

Legal director | Compass Group Chile

Compass Group is the largest contract food services company in the world, and also has operations in cleaning, property management, and support services. Matias Concha Vial not only heads up...

Mauricio Halpern Alamos

General counsel | SMU

Based in Las Condes, Chile, SMU is a national retailer owned by wealthy businessman Alvaro Saieh. There are a number of well-known brands under the SMU umbrella, including chains of...

Michael Timmermann Slater

Chief legal officer | Latin American Power (LAP)

‘Michael is a general counsel that you wish to interact with when facing sophisticated issues. He is very easy to work with, even when the workload is intense’, a source...

Miguel Baeza

Vice president legal, external affairs and sustainability | Sierra Gorda SCM

Miguel Baeza has been vice president, general counsel, corporate affairs and sustainability at Sierra Gorda SCM, the last large mining project development in Chile, since 2014. With a total investment...

Miguel Dunay

Corporate legal manager | Molymet

Chilean company Molymet processes and develops molybdenum, a vital chemical element in various industrial activities. International in scope, the company operates six plants in total with two in Chile and...

Miguel Oyonarte

Vice president legal and corporate | VTR GLOBALCOM

One of Chile’s most prominent telecommunications lawyers, Miguel Oyonarte recently joined VTR Globalcom to oversee legal support to the company’s large network of services in Chile. A wholly owned subsidiary...

Nelson Rojas Preter

General counsel and secretary | Banco de Chile

Financials

The second largest banking institution in Chile by total assets, Banco de Chile provides a complete range of financial services to its client base, which includes large corporations, SMEs and...

Nicolai Bakovic

Legal vice president – general counsel | Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco)

With annual revenues of around $11.5bn, Chile’s state owned copper mining company is the largest producer of copper in the world and a lynchpin of the country’s economy. The company’s...

Nicolas Cabello Eterovic

Legal manager | Banmédica

As legal manager at Banmédica, a leading financial institution in Chile, Nicolas Cabello Eterovic has been praised by colleagues for his strong subject-matter expertise and tenacity in dealing with complex...

Nicolas Lustig

Head of legal – Minerals Americas | BHP Billiton

In his role at the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, Nicolas Lustig oversees the legal strategy of Minera Escondida, the largest copper mine in the world. Having joined BHP Billiton...

Nicolás Sánchez

Legal and corporate affairs director | WOM

A lawyer with a strong background of working in-house and leading international teams, Nicolás Sánchez is a professional widely rated for his business orientation, creativity and strategic thought. As legal...

Oscar Lira Valdes

Legal manager | Pacific Hydro

A lawyer with a proven track record of adaptability and versatility and solid experience of creating value via business process improvements, Oscar Lira Valdes boasts a career of 15 years...

Pablo Bauer Novoa

General counsel and company secretary | COMPAÑÍA SUDAMERICANA DE VAPORES (CSAV)

Founded in 1872, CSAV is one of the oldest shipping companies in the world and with annual revenues in excess of $3bn it is one of the largest in Latin...

Pablo Mattar Oyarzún

Chief counsel of normative legal services, deputy general counsel and attesting officer | Banco Central de Chile

Financials

Pablo Mattar Oyarzún has been at Banco Central de Chile (BCCh) since 1997 and has amassed a wealth of experience in the banking and financial sector as a result of...

Patricio Enei

Vice president of legal | ANTOFAGASTA

In his over 20 years as an in-house lawyer in the mining sector, managing legal teams at some of the largest international copper companies with operations in Chile, Patricio Enei...

Patricio Reyes Urrutia

General counsel | MASISA

‘Hard working, thorough, with a good analytical mind’, Patricio Reyes Urrutia heads up the legal team at Masisa, a wood products company headquartered in Chile. Reyes has a reputation of...

Paul Reginald McDonnell Huerta

Legal manager | Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI)

Financials

BCI is a Chilean bank that operates across four business areas: savings and deposits; insurance; asset management; and securities brokerage. Founded by the Yuar family in 1937, BCI has grown...

Pedro Neira Asenjo

Legal director | Banco del Estado de Chile (BancoEstado)

Financials

Created in 1953 by governmental decree, Banco del Estado de Chile (also known as BancoEstado) is Chile’s only state-owned bank and since the 1970s has been the country’s largest bank....

Rafael Bilbao Deramond

Senior counsel | Scotiabank Chile

Financials

Rafael Bilbao Deramond’s first spell at the Chilean arm of Scotiabank, the Canadian financial services company, came between 2007 and 2010 when he was initially providing advice to the corporate...

Rafael Cox M.

Group general counsel | CMPC

Since 2001, Rafael Cox Montt has overseen legal matters for CMPC, a pulp and paper company headquartered in Chile. With operations throughout Latin America and worldwide revenues of over $4bn,...

Rafael Goldsack Trebilcock

Legal director | Atiaia Energía Chile

Rafael Goldsack is a lawyer highly experienced in the development of energy projects and management of legal processes in the electricity market, with a demonstrated expertise in overseeing matters related...

Rafael Le-Bert

General counsel | Camanchaca

Before Rafael Le-Bert joined the Chilean fishery and seafood company Camanchaca, it did not have a legal department, with all of its legal work done by external firms. Le-Bert immediately...

Rafael Salas Cox

Director of legal services | CGE

In charge of around 40% of electric energy in Chile, Compañía General de Electricidad (CGE) is the largest electric distribution company in the country but also operates natural gas and...

Raúl Patricio Fuentes Mechasqui

General counsel | BICECORP

Part of the Matte Group, BICECORP was founded in 1978 and is now widely considered as one of the most important financial holding companies in Chile. Having developed its business...

Ricardo Muza

Regional legal director | Pfizer

Pfizer’s operations in Chile can be traced back to 1959, when the company was the first multinational pharmaceutical business to enter the country. Since then Pfizer has established a significant...

Ricardo Olivares

General counsel | Empresas Jürgen Paulmann

General counsel at Chilean holding company Empresas Jürgen Paulmann, Ricardo Olivares leads and directs the management and implementation of all strategic matters of the group and all related companies both...

Roberto ladrón de Guevara

Legal director and general counsel | MetLife Chile

Described as ‘one of the most experienced, innovative and hard-working general counsels in the industry’, as well as ‘accessible, creative and easy to work with lawyer’, Roberto Ladrón de Guevara...

Rodrigo Hinzpeter

General counsel and corporate secretary | Quiñenco

With a $71bn asset management portfolio and annual revenues around $20bn, Quiñenco is one of the largest business conglomerates in Chile. Chief counsel Rodrigo Hinzpeter assists the company participate in...

Rodrigo Mackenna Cooper

General counsel Chile | Ferrovial Servicios

Rodrigo Mackenna Cooper has worked in-house for a range national businesses including large multinational corporations, covering different industries and types of businesses. According to him, ‘this means that I have...

Rodrigo Pérez

Legal manager | COLBÚN

Specialising in the generation and distribution of electrical energy in Chile since 1985, Colbún currently has 23 power plants in the country with another plant in Peru. Earning around $1.4bn...

Rony Jara

Legal director | BBVA Chile

Having an impressive career that spans two decades as an in-house lawyer within the financial services sector, the knowledgeable and widely respected Rony Jara serves as general counsel and secretary...

Ruben Henriquez

Chief legal counsel | Australis Seafoods

Ruben Henriquez had to face one of the biggest professional challenges of his career upon joining Australis Seafoods in 2013, undertaking an ambitious restructuring of the legal department, which now...

Sebastian Rivera Martinez

Legal manager Chile and regional compliance officer | Cencosud

With over 1,000 stores in Latin America, over 125,000 staff and a global revenue of around $19bn, Cencosud stands out as Chile’s largest retail company. Sebastian Rivera’s first spell at...

Vjera Razmilić

Senior legal counsel - South Cone region | GE Energy Connections

GE Energy Connections, part of the GE conglomerate, creates industry-leading technologies to improve the transmission, distribution and conversion of electricity through its grids and systems, which provide electrical power to...

Ximena Matas

Legal director Chile | Kinross Gold Corporation

Toronto-based gold-mining company Kinross began operating in Chile in 1998 after it purchased a 50% stake in in the Maricunga open pit mine. Today it is one of the world’s...

In the 1990s, Chile was Latin America’s fastest-growing economy, gained a reputation of being the region’s best managed country and embraced democracy. Impressive growth followed well into the new millennium due to the changes implemented by the country’s policymakers, helping to develop stronger institutions and new industries. However, the country has experienced an economic downturn since 2015 due to a fall in the global price of copper, Chile’s biggest export. Despite this, the country’s economic growth is predicted to strengthen in 2018 according the OECD, due to an improving external demand for domestic goods which will accelerate growth by creating more fertile conditions for investment. The 2014 re-election of President Michelle Bachelet, who was widely credited for helping guide Chile through the global economic crisis in her first spell, adds to the optimism of businesses in overcoming the current downturn.

Away from its vast copper mining operations, the country is also a strong producer of gold, silver, coal and nitrates. Mining has brought stability to the country and has in turn led to a large and thriving financial industry. Supporting this has been an increasingly strong in-house profession. In-house lawyers have become more prevalent in Chile since the turn of the century, as large companies seek to gain more tailored legal advice aligned to their ever-growing operations and aspirations. The Legal 500’s GC Powerlist: Chile features in-house lawyers from companies across a range of sectors, with renowned legal talent from some of the most important businesses and organisations recognised.

In particular, the GC Powerlist: Chile includes those in-house lawyers that have been able to successfully combine their technical legal ability with excellent business acumen to make a truly indispensable contribution to their company’s success.

Over several months our experienced researchers consulted both law firm partners and in-house counsel in order to garner nominations for those believed to provide the most outstanding support and innovative methods of working in the market. We then chose those nominees who were most worthy of inclusion through background research and telephone interviews.

I would like to express my personal thanks to our sponsors, Carey, for supporting this publication. A special mention must also be made for the general counsel that took time to speak to us throughout the process, and for the research team that worked on this GC Powerlist publication, Boris Dechev and Mudasser Ahmedi.

David Burgess
Publishing Director

Carey

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This edition of the GC Powerlist recognises the leading and most innovative general counsels of Chile. They were chosen by The Legal 500 after careful evaluation, which included many consultations with significant players in the Chilean legal community.

Carey is honoured to have been invited by The Legal 500 to be part of its first coverage of individuals that are playing a significant role in the business success of their respective companies.

In recent decades, Chile has been one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America and it presently has the first or second (depending on how it is measured) highest per capita income of the region. The liberal reforms of our economy which have sustained such growth were kick-started in the mid-80s and consistently improved thereafter. Chile has entered into free trade agreements with most, if not all, of its trading partners and has a low, uniform tariff duty applied to all imported goods. Chile is a member of the OECD and is widely recognised as one of the most open and stable economies of the world. It is also perceived, together with Costa Rica and Uruguay, to be one of the countries in Latin America where there is less corruption. Chile has a free press, an independent judiciary and a generally honest political class.

Starting in 2015, however, Chile has been facing many scandals involving illegal financing of political campaigns by the private sector. These scandals, presently under judicial and public scrutiny, are small compared to the ones that have been exposed in other countries of the region. By way of example, Odebrecht did not pay any bribes in Chile in comparison to the huge amounts it paid to gain undue advantages over its competitors in many other countries.

Recently, the laws applied to political campaign financing have been deeply changed, inter alia, to make it illegal for corporations to fund such campaigns. These changes should greatly improve the relationship between money and politics, particularly if our authorities actively enforce them (which should be expected) and also if the press and social media continue to relentlessly scrutinise the activities of our politicians and governmental officials.

Chile has also faced in the recent past several cases where price fixing schemes have been discovered and many already severely punished by our free competition authorities. As a consequence, our entrepreneurs are now taking free competition regulations very, very seriously.

Recent polls confirm that the illegal funding of political campaigns and the above mentioned exposure of collusion cases have caused Chileans to believe that they are living in a corrupt environment. We believe that this perception is wrong and will soon fade away and, as a consequence, our nationals will, once again, feel proud of Chile’s long-standing reputation of institutional honesty.

Important legislative changes made in the first half of President Bachelet’s administration have kept the legal profession very active, as they have in many ways directly affected the business of its clients. These changes include a major revamping of our tax laws, a labour reform that increased the power of unions in collective bargaining and a major educational reform which adversely affected private educators. Many believe that these reforms are partly responsible for the severe reduction of Chile’s economic growth in the last three years and this is why their design, implementation and consequences will be in the heart of the presidential election which will take place by the end of this year.

Although we might be sailing in some rather turbulent waters at present, at Carey we have a positive view of the future of Chile. We are confident that 2018 and the years to come will mean more challenging work for our specialised teams of practice in a transparent and reliable country. In this spirit, we will continue exerting our best efforts to help our clients understand and correctly apply our laws and regulations.

We wish the general counsels and their teams mentioned herein and The Legal 500 great success in their respective endeavours.

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Porzio Rios Garcia Abogados

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Jones Day Hong Kong Roundtable 2024

The Legal 500 was thrilled to join a selection of top Jones Day partners and a hand-picked group of 15 the most prominent GCs in Hong Kong for a freewheeling and no-holds-barred discussion on geopolitical risk management at a time of global transition. Steve Brogan, managing partner of Jones Day from 2002-2022 flew over to lend his considerable expertise to the discussion, as did Partner-in-Charge Hong Kong Joelle Lau. Joining them to give expert briefings on the topics of the day were partners Peter Wang, Dr Qiang Xue, James Fidler, Samuel Ngo and Charles Chau. The conversation moved from sanctions and counter sanctions, to the increasing pre-eminence of the Asian economy, to the philosophy of the rule of law in times of crisis.