Career Biography

Born in Zaragoza (Spain), Juan Sanz currently resides in Madrid. He is married and has three daughters.

Juan Sanz is General Counsel and Company Secretary of Mapfre Re, the global reinsurance company of the Mapfre Group, a position he has held since 2012. He advises the business on all legal, regulatory and corporate governance matters and acts as Secretary to the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, the Management Committee, and the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee.

During his tenure, he has played a key role in several landmark transactions and strategic initiatives, including Mapfre Re’s first catastrophe bond issuance in 2024, followed by a second cat bond transaction in 2025, further strengthening the company’s retrocession and capital markets strategy. He was also closely involved in the 2018 spin‑off of Mapfre Global Risks, which involved the distribution of asset blocks among beneficiary companies, significantly increasing Mapfre Re’s share capital and in the establishment of Mapfre Re’s branches in Beijing (China) in 2024 and GIFT City (India) in 2026.

Before joining Mapfre Re as General Counsel, Juan served as International Legal Counsel at Mapfre S.A. and held various senior legal roles within the Group. Earlier in his career, he worked at Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., Spanish Delegation, and began his professional practice at Elzaburu, S.A., focusing on trademark law and other intellectual property (IP) matters. He holds an LL.M. in Corporate Law from IE Law School and a Law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid, and is fluent in Spanish, English and French. In parallel with his professional practice, he is actively involved in teaching and industry organisations related to insurance and reinsurance regulation (Juan has been a member of the teaching faculty of the specialisation programme Insurance Regulatory Law at IEB – Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles-. He also teaches at the Madrid Bar Association -executive programme “ICAM Consejeros y Gobierno Corporativo”- and at Deusto Business School –“Liderando desde el Consejo” programme-).

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

The more significant are the participation in the issuance of Mapfre Re’s first catastrophe bond (Cat Bond) in December 2024 -designed to complement its traditional retrocession programme by accessing capital markets through the Ireland‑based vehicle Recoletos Re DAC, securing US$125m of protection against named storm events in the US- and a second catastrophe bond transaction in November 2025, securing €125m of annual aggregate European windstorm retrocession on an industry loss trigger basis.

And also the establishment of Mapfre Re’s branches in Beijing (China) in 2024 and in GIFT City (India) in 2026, as well as the transformation of the London branch from an EU branch into a third country branch following Brexit.