About

When Lourdes Maldonado assumed her current position of senior managing counsel for compliance in the Latin American and Caribbean businesses of Mastercard International, she successfully implemented a region-wide compliance programme and facilitated the growth of the local compliance function. ‘This represented a great opportunity to grow and take on new challenges personally and as a legal professional,’ she says. Maldonado further explains that, ‘In 2015, due to my temporary assignment in Middle East and Africa I was also able to bring the best practices between both regions’. At the same time, over the last several years, Maldonado has been credited for creating awareness of the program in an ever-growing and dynamic region. She adds, ‘I have been able to implement the compliance program from in a complex business environment and high-risk region. Taking advantage of my education and legal instruction in Mexico and the US, I have the capability to explain the nuisances of the region to the global teams and also to translate the global requirements to a Latin environment. I’ve been a “cultural and legal translator” between the two (global and Latin America). In other words, I’m a “local” but with international experience and understanding’. Prior to assuming her current role, Maldonado served briefly on a temporary assignment at Mastercard’s Canada office in 2011. ‘It was a completely different culture and the business challenge in a developed country forced me to be creative and to go outside my comfort zone to become the trusted advisor of the Canada management team’, she shares. ‘I helped the local team to launch the first “Priceless Cities” program ever in Canada and negotiated important agreements with banks and non-traditional players in the payments field’. Maldonado joined Mastercard in 2008 as the company’s first lawyer based in the Mexico City office and initially provided coverage to Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay and afterwards to Mexico and Central America. Previously Maldonado led the legal department at Oracle Mexico and was employed at law firms in Mexico.