About

IEnova is a specialist energy infrastructure developer with a large presence in the Mexican market, employing over 900 and investing US$7.6bn as of 2017. The business, which is a subsidiary of the Sempra Energy Company, has a strong in-house legal department of 15 lawyers, a paralegal and two support staff. The team is led by Rene Buentello Carbonell, general counsel and chief compliance officer, and is divided into four segments: corporate governance, commercial and regulatory, ethics and a separate compliance segment. Recently, all activities regarding corporate security and health and safety – including IEnova’s risk assessment process and its combined management system for EH&S and quality standards – have come under the remit of the legal department. Buentello is supported by Rodrigo Cortina Cortina, legal director and corporate secretary, Gabriela Peña Barrales, commercial legal director, Alejandro Rios Rippa, corporate ethics director, Aida Rodríguez Brambila, real estate legal manager, Matias Echecopar Puga, EPC and construction legal manager and Ramiro Fernandez Torres Septien, compliance senior manager. Buentello identifies that ‘the incorporation of compliance, document control, EH&S and corporate security into the legal team has created a strong vigilante team fully dedicated to protect IEnova’s business and reputation’. As the first energy infrastructure company publicly traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange, IEnova operates in a highly regulated environment and its success mainly depends on its ability to comply with a series of laws and regulations on an efficient basis.