What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The most significant transaction we have been involved in is the signing of an agreement for the sale of our three operations – Chile, Colombia and Ecuador -, where our legal department has played a key role in achieving this agreement. We played an active part in the preparation of the due diligence, contract discussion process, regulatory filings and everything that involves the preparation of the disinvestment. This is definitely the transaction that has taken most of our time during the past year.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?

We are absolutely well positioned to have a bigger presence, as a key partner to the executive branch of the company. I have been in this role for over five years and I have seen how our role has evolved in that sense, as when I started the legal department was regarded as having that function of review, validation or legal advice. Today, we are “in” the business, we became a business partner, participating from the early stages of every project – no longer having a presence of merely legal advisory. We really do have an integrated process with the executive side of the company.

What diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have you and your legal department been championing within your company’s endeavours?

I am very proud of the company I work for, in that sense. I think, in general and not just in the legal department, we have a lot of initiatives that are addressing diversity, equity and inclusion, because I like to think it’s not all about diversity. Within the legal department that I run in the Andes region, I have four people who report directly to me, of which three are women. They are all fantastic and I believe that has nothing to do with their gender. We clearly need to provide equal opportunities to everybody and I think this is a company where you are truly allowed to be yourself and you will be provided with opportunities based on your work, competence and merits, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation or event political views. We are also trying to implement, locally, KPIs on this issue, to understand which departments are really focusing their efforts on diversity, inclusion and equity. It is an ongoing process but is something we want to develop and understand which specific KPIs should we prioritise to better assess our companies role on this issue.