About

Legal director for the southern cone (& ‘LatAm Pacific’) at GlaxoSmithKline since 2005, Fernando Gestal has a small team in which he has sought to inculcate a culture of risk management. He regards knowledge of the business and its risks, and the intricacies of both company policy and local legislation as ‘powerful tools that grant us a broader vision and enable us to provide better legal support of our businesses, thereby generating greater added value’. Currently responsible for seven jurisdictions, he regards his success in establishing the relevance of the legal department to business development and growth, ‘even in those countries where the team has no physical presence’, as among his most significant achievements to date.