What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

There have been many challenges over the past year, from the process of overcoming pandemic restrictions to resuming business and production lines at full speed with strong pressure from all parts of the world, due to demands for products that had stopped manufacturing in the previous two years.

But without a doubt, the biggest challenge from a leadership point of view in such a changing domain is to remain consistent with business decisions in a viable legal and regulatory environment. It was not always easy to analyse circumstances and risks when making decisions when we were clearly not prepared. Technology, global communications, health response capabilities and humane living conditions in many of our countries have allowed for better management of the pandemic but establishing that we managed to overcome it without major challenges for something we were not aware of, is something that we cannot say.

Being consistent with the decisions and legal courses taken by the company is one of the most challenging important that surely all GCs have had, during the last two years. Evaluating changing conditions on the fly and staying faithful to the legal and regulatory principles with which we are entrusted with advising the operation of a business was the most important challenge during 2022. Scenarios changed overnight and, on many occasions, we did not have a previous reference of how to operate decisions, risks or results in these diverse situations. We successfully managed to navigate perhaps some of the most convulsive and uncertain moments in our recent contemporary history, and to say that we remained coherent as legal and regulatory advisors for our organisations, keeping them safe, free of legal problems and with risks. controlled during the last two years.

In which ways have you attempted to bring the legal department closer to your business colleagues?

During these years, the legal department had to discover unexplored avenues, thoroughly understanding the business to be able to propose creative, viable and out-of-the-box solutions, is one of the best strategies to bring the business and the legal area closer together. A legal area that does not understand the business it advises is doomed to go unnoticed, this implies understanding concepts of economy, finance, foreign trade, knowing how to run your business and understanding in depth the needs and particularities of each area, and each zone. Geographically, this task is continuous and can only be achieved by truly approaching each of the people who are part of your business from a human and personal perspective.

What are some of the most significant cases and transactions you have been involved in recently?

We were recently involved in a major asset sale in Costa Rica for the company and with top innovation technology in the medical industry, bringing the support of high tech into the operation room, to ensure quality services to the patients. S+N philosophy pilar of care drives all the functions in our company to work every day to make a better world for our patients. We are all committed to ensuring that together we go further.