Career Biography

Lauren T. Vargas Sarmiento is Corporate Legal Manager at Grupo Rica, where she leads the legal strategy across the group’s companies. With more than 15 years of experience in corporate, regulatory and intellectual property law, she advises on domestic and international commercial contracts, negotiations, corporate and regulatory matters, consumer and competition law, civil disputes and corporate risk management. She also coordinates and represents the group in public procurement processes.

Lauren is a member of INDOCAL’s Labelling Committee, contributing to the development and amendment of labelling standards, as well as its Milk and Dairy Products Quality Committee. She also represents Grupo Rica on the legal committees of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD).

Alongside her in-house career, Lauren has extensive academic experience. She has taught Company Law at Universidad Católica Santo Domingo (UCSD) since 2024 and previously taught Commercial Law and Succession Law at Universidad Federico Henríquez y Carvajal (UFHEC) from 2018 to 2024.

Lauren holds a Master’s degree in Corporate Business Law from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), a Master’s degree in Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law from Universidad APEC, and a law degree, awarded summa cum laude, from Universidad Católica Santo Domingo (UCSD).