About

An industry expert, María Eugenia Aldama Garaizabal was responsible for the legal management of GE Capital Real Estate, the real estate investment unit of the American conglomerate General Electric, in Spain for more than five years. Before moving in-house, Aldama Garaizabal had worked as a senior associate with the market leading law firm Uría Menéndez, where she specialised in transactional and commercial real estate. An advocate for a proactive legal department, within five years she succeeded in making the GE Capital Real Estate legal team a real business partner. ‘I established a culture in which the legal role is a key player for the business. General Electric has traditionally been very serious with the role of both legal and compliance, and the team was very receptive with this approach and would naturally contact legal for a variety of matters’ she comments. ‘My perception is that for other companies legal is contacted if a conflict is already in place, so I tried to involve legal in all transactions from the very beginning’. As of February 2016 Aldama Garaizabal is legal counsel at Azora Gestión SGIIC, with responsibilities over Hispania’s Socimi hotel portfolio and other hospitality real estate properties.