What are the key projects you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Over the past year, I have been involved in several projects, including the divestiture of a multibank in Panama. I led the internal and external legal teams on behalf of the seller — a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco de Bogotá — in a transaction valued at approximately $1bn. My role involved driving the due diligence process, negotiating the Stock Purchase Agreement (SPA), securing necessary corporate approvals, ensuring the satisfaction of conditions precedent and executing the closing of the transaction.

I also directed internal and external legal counsel in the acquisition of Itaú’s retail banking operations in Colombia and Panama, negotiating a partial asset and liability purchase agreement focusing on retail banking. I am currently leading the legal team through the regulatory and corporate approval processes required for closing, as well as overseeing the legal workstreams for the migration phase.

The merger by absorption of Fiduciaria Bogotá was another key project. I managed the legal strategy for Banco de Bogotá’s absorption of Fiduciaria Bogotá’s remaining equity, following the spin-off of its trust businesses to Aval Fiduciaria. This included overseeing the buyout of minority stakes, securing regulatory approval for the stock purchase and executing the final corporate absorption.

Can you describe an instance where your legal advice directly influenced business strategy or commercial objectives?

In my role, I ensure that legal advice is a catalyst for business strategy rather than a hurdle. My legal and regulatory steering has directly influenced our commercial objectives across four main pillars.

The first is high-stakes dispute resolution: I redesigned our litigation management and contingency strategy to be highly cost-efficient. Notably, my direct involvement in defining the legal strategy for key arbitrations resulted in favorable outcomes for our subsidiaries exceeding $30m.

Secondly, bottom-line financial impact. Working closely with the business units, my team and I structured and executed recovery strategies for high-value distressed credit operations. This proactive approach prevented severe write-offs and delivered a substantial, direct positive impact to the bank’s net profit.

Digital transformation and CX is the third. I led the legal implementation of the electronic promissory note (pagaré electrónico) for both corporate and retail banking. This initiative removed significant transactional friction, directly improving the customer experience (CX) and driving business velocity.

The fourth pillar is market innovation (Bre-B payments). I have been actively involved in the core strategic definitions required for the rollout and launch of Bre-B, Colombia’s new real-time payment system. My role was to ensure that regulatory compliance and risk allocation perfectly aligned with the bank’s goal of capture-market share on day one.

What key trends should in-house counsel be monitoring over the coming months?

The role of in-house counsel has shifted from being a compliance overseer to a direct enabler of business velocity and corporate growth. Over the coming months, internal legal departments must monitor and actively drive two major transformations that will redefine our value proposition to the organisation.

The first trend is the evolution of operational efficiency through artificial intelligence. This is not about adopting technology for the sake of trends, but about strategically integrating it into the repeatable, high-volume tasks of daily legal operations, such as standard contract screening and regulatory tracking. By automating these baseline workflows, we achieve a critical business objective: freeing up the bandwidth of our internal legal talent. That reclaimed time directly translates into installed capacity, allowing the team to focus on complex financial structuring, strategic litigation, high-value asset recovery and preventative risk counseling — the high-level advisory work where human judgment truly moves the needle for the institution.

The second indispensable trend is aligning legal frameworks with a customer-centric business model. Today, universal banking faces the immense challenge of differentiating itself in a market where financial products are becoming increasingly commoditised. The true differentiator lies in the ability to delight the user, eliminate onboarding barriers and earn their trust to become their primary financial institution (principalidad).

The legal department plays a critical role in this client experience. While historically viewed as a point of friction in the sales funnel, today we must act as co-designers of digital distribution channels. This means architecting agile legal frameworks that simplify the customer journey, ensuring seamless and secure transactions across both mass-market retail lines and complex corporate banking. Furthermore, with the rollout of instant, open transactional ecosystems in the local market, the legal team bears the responsibility of structuring clear, safe and competitive ground rules for these new payment rails. By doing so, we ensure the bank can capture market share with agility from day one, securing customer loyalty through a secure, friction-free experience.

Have you had any particularly unique or defining experiences during your legal career?

Throughout my legal career, I have been fortunate to experience moments that were not only high-stakes professional challenges, but also pivotal for my personal and leadership growth. Two specific experiences stand out as the true bookends of my trajectory at Banco de Bogotá.

The first defining moment occurred over twelve years ago during the acquisition of BAC Credomatic. At the time, I had the opportunity to play a key role in what was a landmark $1.5bn transaction. This wasn’t just a masterclass in cross-border M&A and complex financial structuring; it was the first time I was truly visible to the organisation’s top management. Executing a deal of that magnitude required a level of precision and strategic thinking that allowed the leadership team to see my capabilities firsthand. It was the moment I proved I could navigate high-pressure environments while protecting the institution’s long-term interests, and it effectively set the stage for my future within the bank.

The second defining experience was my appointment in 2024 as legal vice president and general secretary. This milestone was particularly meaningful because it wasn’t an isolated event, but the culmination of a dedicated, lifelong career within the same institution. Transitioning into this C-suite role represented the ultimate validation of my work ethic and my understanding of the banking business. It shifted my focus from executing legal strategy to architecting it, aligning the legal function with the bank’s broader commercial goals and digital transformation.

Looking back, these two moments represent a full circle: from a lawyer proving his worth in a billion-dollar deal to the executive now responsible for leading the legal and governance strategy of the entire organisation. Together, they have defined my approach to leadership, which is rooted in deep institutional knowledge, technical excellence and a relentless focus on business enabling.