Event information
Set in the heart of Bogotá, this exclusive event, sponsored by Holland & Knight, will bring together leading voices from the legal and corporate worlds to explore the evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion. At a time when DEI programs face heightened scrutiny and shifting political winds, the conversation has never been more relevant—or more urgent.
Against the backdrop of recent executive orders and the broader debate they have sparked, this gathering will serve as a platform for a candid discussion on the future of corporate and institutional DEI efforts. Thought leaders and industry experts will examine the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, navigating the fine balance between legal frameworks, business imperatives, and the undeniable social impact of inclusive policies.
With perspectives from key stakeholders across sectors, the event will offer a space for reflection, debate, and collaboration, reaffirming the importance of meaningful action in the pursuit of greater equity. As global conversations evolve, Bogotá will set the stage for an engaging dialogue on what comes next for diversity and inclusion in Latin America and beyond.
Agenda
- Selene Espinosa, partner, Mexico city, Holland & Knight
- Enrique Gómez-Pinzón, executive partner, Holland & Knight
The panel will bring together key stakeholders from various sectors to reflect, debate, and collaborate on how to implement meaningful DEI action, stressing the importance of maintaining momentum in the pursuit of equity and ensuring that DEI initiatives go beyond policy to create real, lasting change.
Against the backdrop of ongoing global conversations on diversity and inclusion, this will serve as a crucial space to discuss what comes next for DEI in Latin America and beyond. Attendees will gain valuable perspectives on how to drive inclusivity within their organisations and the broader community, contributing to a global movement toward equity and social impact.
- Inés Elvira Vesga, partner, Bogotá, Holland & Knight
- Turenna Ramirez Ortiz, partner, Mexico city, Holland & Knight
- Mauricio Vélez, country advisory, IFC
- Carolina Nieto Cáceres, former manager of corporate affairs, Bogotá Chamber of Commerce
- Ximena Restrepo, olympic athlete
Speakers
Selene Espinosa, partner, Mexico city, Holland & Knight
Selene Espinosa is a solicitor at Holland & Knight’s Mexico office, where her practice is focused on corporate and financial transactions. Ms Espinosa advises clients with a business-oriented approach, and her extensive experience in corporate matters enables her to represent both strategic buyers and sellers in complex cross-border transactions involving entities and assets in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. Ms Espinosa has broad expertise in mergers and acquisitions, project financing, joint ventures and international transactions, insurance, mining, infrastructure, and real estate law.
Throughout her career, she has stood out for her business-focused approach to transactions, her international service, her practical understanding of her clients’ businesses, and her ability to structure transactions that address key business concerns, ensuring a seamless service across all practices and jurisdictions.
Additionally, Ms Espinosa has experience in corporate governance and foreign investment matters for companies across various industries, including mining, aviation, insurance, construction, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, retail, and the automotive sector.
Furthermore, Ms Espinosa has represented both insurers and insured parties in relation to the issuance of Reps and Warranties (R&W) insurance policies in corporate transactions.
Before joining Holland & Knight Mexico, Ms Espinosa worked at General Electric in the financial division, where she was involved in the implementation of credit agreements between GE and various borrowers. Additionally, she worked at two international law firms and a local firm based in Mexico City for several years.
Enrique Gómez-Pinzón, executive partner, Holland & Knight
Enrique Gómez-Pinzón is the executive partner of Holland & Knight’s office in Bogotá, Colombia. He practises in the areas of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cross-border investment and financing, corporate and compliance, international arbitration, and project financing. While Mr Gómez-Pinzón spends the majority of his time in Bogotá, he still maintains his practice in Washington, D.C.
In his practice, Mr Gómez-Pinzón has participated in some of the most important M&A transactions in Colombia in the last 30 years, including logistics and pharmaceutical companies, licensing of cellular telephones, banking entities, power generation and distribution companies, and petroleum and gas transportation.
Mr Gómez-Pinzón has represented acquiring companies in various M&A transactions of mass public transportation companies in Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. He has participated in various M&A transactions within the United States, representing foreign acquiring companies, as well as cross-border transactions in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, the Bahamas, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. Additionally, he has extensive experience in corporate matters, including internal investigations and compliance issues, and he regularly advises companies in Colombia regarding the design, implementation, and enforcement of comprehensive compliance and ethics programmes to reduce their potential legal exposure, as well as defending clients in civil investigations and coordinating with U.S. and other foreign counsel.
Likewise, Mr Gómez-Pinzón has represented contractors in matters before the World Bank Sanctions Committee. He has served as an arbitrator in a variety of international investment arbitrations administered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), as well as cases administered under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Gómez-Pinzón was the founder and former director of one of the largest law firms in Colombia. He was the co-founder and director of the Colombian-Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In addition, he was a member of the board of directors of the Bogotá Stock Exchange, as well as an independent board member of several publicly traded companies and banks in Colombia and the United States.
Mr Gómez-Pinzón served as the director of the Colombian Trade Bureau in Washington, D.C., where he represented the Colombian government and several of its industries. In 1999, he formed part of the Colombian Delegation for the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Seattle Ministerial Conference and the Free Trade Area of the Americas’ (FTAA) Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Toronto.
Inés Elvira Vesga, partner, Bogotá, Holland & Knight
Inés Elvira Vesga is a corporate and transactional solicitor at Holland & Knight’s Bogotá office, where she focuses her practice on international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate matters, as well as energy regulatory matters and complex transactions, particularly in the energy sector.
Ms Vesga is highly experienced in advising national and foreign clients on corporate and M&A transactions across various industries, including oil and gas, energy and natural resources, renewables, logistics, telecommunications, and healthcare service providers, among others. She has more than 15 years of experience advising on regulatory issues, oil and gas projects, and other complex corporate negotiations, enabling her to support clients in a wide range of transactions across multiple jurisdictions.
As part of her practice, Ms Vesga has represented companies in the energy sector in the sale of their main assets and the acquisition of companies in the same sector, including due diligence processes, negotiation of transaction terms, and closings. Within her practice, she provides corporate and regulatory advisory services to local and international companies in the renewables business.
Before joining Holland & Knight, Ms Vesga worked at two Bogotá-based law firms and founded her own boutique firm. Prior to that, she served as general counsel for a local group of companies focused on exploration and production operations and oilfield services.
Turenna Ramirez Ortiz, partner, Mexico city, Holland & Knight
Turenna Ramirez Ortiz is a corporate trade solicitor at Holland & Knight’s Mexico City office. Ms Ramirez focuses on advising multinational companies on cross-border transactions related to international trade, customs, and non-tariff regulations.
Ms Ramirez has more than 25 years of experience, and her clients include automotive, retail, chemical, petrochemical, luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, software, cosmetics, electronics, maquiladoras (IMMEX), and trading companies. She handles strategic planning, trade compliance diagnostics, advisory on free trade agreements, preventive and reactive audits by the Mexican Tax Administration Service, as well as defence and litigation before the Mexican government and federal courts.
In addition, Ms Ramirez advises on foreign trade, multilateral treaties, and anti-dumping laws. Her experience includes the design and implementation of business strategies, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) origin verifications, rules of origin, export controls, import/export regimes, bonded facilities structure and management, duty-quota design, high-level negotiations and implementation, and in-depth knowledge of tariff and non-tariff regulatory issues. She has participated in complex, high-visibility matters and in international trade negotiations with the Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) in a programme against forgery and piracy.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms Ramirez was a solicitor and board member of a Mexican law firm and Managing Partner of its Mexico City office.
Ms Ramirez has also completed a Leading Professional Service Firms course at Harvard Business School, as well as several postgraduate courses on international business, commercial structure, and legal aspects of foreign trade at various Mexican universities. She also completed an internship in the Congressional office of former Representative Eligio “Kika” de la Garza.
Mauricio Vélez, country advisory, IFC
Mauricio Vélez is an administrative engineer and a specialist in financial engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He holds a Master’s in Economics from Universidad EAFIT and a Master’s in Sustainable Development from Macquarie University in Australia. He has also completed postgraduate studies in sustainable business practices at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
With over 16 years of experience in the financial sector, he has served as Project Manager at Bancolombia and Director of Sustainability at Asobancaria. He currently works at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group as a Country Advisory Officer, focusing on market development and sustainable finance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition, he is a lecturer in Corporate Sustainability at Universidad de los Andes and a board member of Fondo Acción.
Carolina Nieto Cáceres, former manager of corporate affairs, Bogotá Chamber of Commerce
Carolina Nieto Cáceres is an expert in political advocacy, corporate communications, and reputation management, with nearly two decades of experience designing strategies in both the private and public sectors. She has advised executive teams on crisis management, marketing, and community building, combining her expertise in law and political science with training from Harvard and LSE.
Recognised as one of the Women to Watch 2023, she serves on the board of directors of J.P. Morgan and the Juanfe Foundation, as well as organisations such as Women in Connection and the International Women’s Forum. Through her programme “En Voz Alta”, she actively promotes female leadership and gender equality.
Ximena Restrepo, olympic athlete
Ximena Restrepo Gaviria is a specialist in high-performance sports and the organisation of multi-sport events. She represented Colombia for over 20 years in international competitions, taking part in three World Athletics Championships and four Olympic Games.
Her greatest sporting achievement came at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, where she won the bronze medal in the 400 metres. Her time in that race remains, to this day, the fastest ever recorded by a South American female athlete in this discipline.
Ximena has played a key role in the management and organisation of high-level sporting events. She served as Sports Manager for the Organising Committees of the Santiago 2014 South American Games and the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, making a significant contribution to the success of both editions.
In 2017, she made history by becoming the first female Vice President of World Athletics, the global governing body for athletics. Within the organisation, she was part of the Special Commission on Human Rights and is currently a member of the Gender Leadership Taskforce and the Gender Diversity Commission. Through these roles, she drives initiatives focused on equity and inclusion, actively promoting women’s rights in global sport.
In association with...
Holland & Knight is a global law firm with approximately 2,200 lawyers and other professionals in 34 offices around the world. Our Colombian team has well-rounded experience providing bilingual and bicultural representation to companies from all around the world. The recent combination of notable business law firm Cuberos Cortés Gutiérrez (CCG) has made our Colombia office one of the fastest growing international law firms with a robust full-service practice. The recent growth has further strengthened our existing corporate, litigation, arbitration, labor, tax, infrastructure projects and real estate practices, while also expanding the firm’s capabilities through the addition of new practice areas.
We counsel clients in cross-border transactions, taxation, labor and employment, intellectual property and competition, energy, environmental law, natural resources, infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures, venture capital, private equity investments, banking and finance and project finance, as well as international litigation and arbitration. We also provide regulatory advice to foreign companies doing business in Colombia, as well as Colombian companies doing business abroad.