About

Grupo Catalana Occidente, a publicly listed insurance group, has a legal department which manages legal, tax, regulatory and corporate governance issues in relation to the parent company of the Group as well as coordinating with seven different legal departments established in the subsidiaries of the Group in order to provide consistent advice. Joaquin Guallar is the general counsel, leading a team of five lawyers and four support staff. The seven subsidiary legal departments are led by Jose Maria Zubiria (Seguros Bilbao), Montserrat Valenti (Seguros Catalana Occidente), David de Santiago (Plus Ultra Seguros), Martijn van Gils (Atradius Crédito y Caución), Laura Mata (Nortehispana Seguros), Rachel McCormac (Atradius Reinsurance) and Veronica Alonso (Grupo Asistea) respectively. In addition, Angelina Bauza is the director in charge of the tax department within the legal team, Assumpta Valero heads the compliance group and Ignasi Mas coordinates the network of external counsels. Grupo Catalana Occidente has been growing through various acquisitions lately and ‘the legal department has actively managed the deals and coordinated with different departments within the Group’, says a nominator. The Group acquired several competitors, with the most recent being Seguros de Vida y Accidentes Antares – Telefonica’s insurance captive company – in early 2019. Other major deals include the cross-border merger between its two main credit insurance businesses which included a record breaking notification process in order to obtain authorisations from regulatory authorities in more than 40 jurisdictions; the incorporation of GCO Reaseguros, the only pure reinsurance carrier incorporated in Spain in the last 25 years; the reorganisation and merger of all pension funds managed by the different Group companies under a sole pension fund management entity (GCO Gestora de Pensiones EGFP); and the acquisition of relevant real estate premises in Barcelona and Madrid during 2017 and 2018. According to Guallar, ‘our team culture is based on collaboration and the aim for maximum efficiency while providing high quality legal advice with the ultimate goal of assisting the business. The fact that Grupo Catalana Occidente is a listed company and develops its business in a regulated industry has given the legal team a key role within the organisation, but we consider that we cannot lose track of the fact that we shall act as business catalysers instead of business stoppers, by being active actors integrated in the business processes and not an “isolated” department detached from the company’s day-to-day activities, so our aim is to optimise the resources available and provide creative solutions to the challenges faced by the entire organisation’.