Can you tell us about your journey to becoming an in-house counsel? What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?  

I have been an in-house counsel for more than 14 years. I graduated from UNAM, one of the best legal schools in Mexico, and during my studies I worked at Pfizer to support the spin-off of the animal health business to Zoetis and the sale of the nutrition business. After my graduation, I opened the legal division at Sealed Air for Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and Colombia. Later, Colgate Palmolive contacted me to become marketing counsel for innovation in Latin America and following this position I supported the Mexico business unit including the biggest manufacturing site of the company in the world. Afterward, AstraZeneca reached out to offer me the senior legal manager position to drive the legal development of Covid-19 vaccines sales in Latin America and the Mexico operation for all business units during the pandemic. Recently Mondelēz acquired Ricolino and I was invited to join the legal team as counsel senior manager. 

In your role as an in-house counsel, what are the main responsibilities and tasks you handle on a day-to-day basis?  

At Mondelēz, I lead the legal strategy and support for the supply chain in Mexico, which consists of seven manufacturing sites plus distribution centres and transportation. Therefore, I implement new agreements with the procurement team while providing legal advice. Equally, I guide regulatory teams to navigate legal matters. 

Related to Ricolino’s acquisition, I collaborate to map the steps that will help the company to reach a seamless fusion with Mondelēz. This process also requires a project to tender all services, direct and direct goods to achieve unification for both companies. 

I set the legal strategy and follow up of litigation and administrative open procedures in the different manufacturing sites by different authorities such as health, environmental, municipality, among others. 

What are some of the key challenges you have faced as a rising star in-house counsel, and how have you overcome them?  

I have been challenged in many ways, such as negotiating the most important agreement for green energy supply at the time, for the biggest manufacturing site of Colgate Palmolive around the globe, which generated major savings and built long-term sustainability goals in the company. During the pandemic, I was part of the team in charge of creating documents and negotiating the Covid-19 vaccine agreements with a different number of countries in Latin America, where a lot of political interests were involved but also against the clock negotiations due to the nature of the vaccines and the manufacturing challenges with third party providers, but most importantly, the possibility to provide health means to entire countries. Most recently, I am facing a major acquisition in the consumer industry, having a company doubling its size and revenue in Mexico. All these challenges taught me to dig deeper in order to understand the root cause of business issues. I have developed the ability to ask questions, connect and communicate timely with the right people, while finding common places where all parties involved feel comfortable with the business outcome.        

What steps have you taken to enhance your professional development and expand your legal skill set?  

I finished two certifications in Antitrust Law at ITAM and Health Law at Escuela Libre de Derecho. I got a leader certification from Harvard Business Publishing. In June 2023, I graduated from a Master in Company Law at Universidad Panamericana. I am coordinator of the antitrust commission at ANADE (Company Counsels National Association). I have been a panellist for different topics, and I am always looking for new opportunities to improve my development