About

Mexico-based Mabe was formed in the period immediately after the Second World War, initially as a kitchen furniture company. It soon began to diversify into the production of kitchen appliances, establishing itself as a market leader in Mexico over the next few decades. In the mid-1980s, the company entered into a highly successful joint venture with GE, which allowed it to export their products to a truly global market. This development brought impressive growth and led to the company becoming one of Mexico’s leading brands, a position it holds to this day. It now has revenue of around $4bn, over 21,000 employees and maintains a dominant position in the Mexican white goods market. Their legal team is led by general counsel and corporate ombudsperson Paul Korder, who has extensive experience both of the in-house legal market and of Mabe itself, having been employed there for almost a decade. Now bearing overall responsibility for legal issues within the corporation, Korder and his team have been active lately, as the long-standing and lucrative joint venture with GE has finally come to an end following GE’s sale of their appliance business to Chinese firm Qingdao Haier. Qingdao Haier’s acquisition of GE’s 48.4% stake in Mabe has required the legal team to coordinate transfer of authority between the two companies, and update management and other stakeholders accordingly. Given the high degree of cooperation between GE and Mabe historically, enabling this transfer has been a significant and complex task that is worthy of praise.