About

Having been the general counsel for 17 years at GasValpo, the Chilean distributor of natural gas, María Paz Alvear has an almost unparalleled understanding of the company’s operations and legal requirements. She joined the company in 2000 and comments that ‘at that time GasValpo, a gas distribution company located in the Region of Valparaiso, had less than 40,000 customers and was just starting to distribute natural gas supplied from Argentina’. She adds, ‘Today we distribute natural gas sourced from LNG to almost 100,000 clients in three different regions of Chile – it is a complete different company!’. As a result of her longstanding career at GasValpo, Paz has worked on its most critical projects and is today a highly trusted member who has changed the culture of the company’s use of its own internal legal function. Regarding this she had the following to share: ‘Nowadays the general counsel is part of the senior management team, with 100% involvement, working side by side with the general manager and the rest of the team. My role as general counsel is very much determined by my understanding of the business and its regulation, including my involvement from the first minute in projects, transactions or business opportunities, in order to incorporate the legal point of view from the beginning, highlighting the legal and commercial risks that we might face and pointing out business opportunities’. One landmark project Paz earned significant credit for was related to the dispute involving the company and other being sued and investigated following a gas explosion in Valparaiso in 2007 which made the national news. Paz was responsible for coordinating and supervising the lawyers in charge of the criminal and administrative process, reviewing each and every presentation and gathering the requested evidence. Her involvement in the one year criminal investigation and 10 year civil trial helped ensure the company attained a final outcome that was far better than initially envisaged. Another landmark company project Paz can be proud of her contribution towards is the 2018 sale of GasValpo to a consortium formed by Marubeni Corporation and Inversiones Toesca. Although not in charge of the sales process, she was responsible for overseeing the review of many documents, and was successful in refinancing the loan that the new owners had contracted for the acquisition of the company. She is also credited with rafting and implementing a crime prevention model in accordance with Chilean law and launching a new code of ethics within the company and its contractors. ‘Reinforcing values together with the culture of “doing the right thing” is one of the main shields against bribery and corruption and has been part of my day-to-day tasks as general counsel of GasValpo’, she explains.