Despite being only 36 years old, Carlos Eduardo Gil ‘has comprehensive knowledge of all areas of the law and all practice areas relevant to [his] company’s activities’ according to a nominating source. In 2014 he was headhunted and assumed the position of general counsel for Martifer Group, a multinational industrial group active in the metallic construction sector with its holding company, Martifer SGPS, listed on Euronext Lisbon.

Since taking over the reins of the legal function there he has reduced costs substantially by relying less on external counsel services whilst reorganising the team by practice areas to tailor the in-house service according to business needs. As part of his role, Gil has also been a key participant on Martifer’s most significant projects and to this extent worked on the Group’s financial debt restructuring (around €260m at that time) with the seven main financing banks in the country. ‘It was the first big project I was involved in when I assumed the role of Martifer’s GC and it totally changed my perspective on how work should be handled by an in-house rather than an external legal counsel’, Gil says reflecting on the experience.

He followed up on this by working on the M&A process of selling Martifer Solar to Voltalia Group. Regarding this project, Gil says, ‘it was one of the biggest M&A operations I was involved in with a major international. [It] comprised operations in several countries around the globe and the carve-out of several assets in the US. The number of jurisdictions and the complexity of the operation, as well as the capacity to set it up in less than five months, was one of the major challenges I’ve faced as a GC’. Since then he’s also been involved in several important M&A operations in Brazil, Argentina, the US, Portugal, Slovakia and Colombia in the construction, shipyard and renewable energies sectors.

Nominators spoke glowingly of Gil during this year’s research: ‘He is extremely business-oriented and able to offer very imaginative solutions to any problems that may arise and, moreover, he is devoted to his work and consistently achieves the goals he is pursuing in every project he embraces’.