Team size: Eleven

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

In my experience as a legal manager, the role we have in organisations goes far beyond that of a legal advisor. The legal manager has become a strategic ally of the business and should be part of strategic planning, as well as be present in the decision-making process of the business.

My role as legal compliance and permitting manager at Marcobre for nearly seven years, as well as my duties as board secretary, have allowed me to be present in shareholder and board meetings, where I not only take note of the agreements, but also understand key decisions, which allow me to serve as a link between the staff and the directors and management. This also enables me to act as a spokesperson for their agreements and for the risk appetite, as well as propose the board agendas and the annual plan for the sessions. To perform these tasks effectively, one must have a deep understanding of the business and prioritise what is strategic.

As a compliance officer and member of the compliance committee, I am not only responsible, along with my team, for ensuring legal compliance, but also for shaping culture and promoting the organisation’s values.

The Covid-19 pandemic era was a time in which legal managers took on significant roles to advise and adapt to the drastic changes the world and businesses underwent in work styles and risk analysis. As a member of the crisis committee, I was in charge of coordinating with the government to ensure the company’s continuity while always safeguarding people’s health. The decisions we made, and my advisory role went far beyond legal aspects.

From our role, we must adapt to the changes in the world; be flexible to the new challenges that arise, but always maintain firm convictions and integrity.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?

One of the most rewarding things I have done is to be a founder of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Marcobre; gradually creating a culture of inclusion, breaking biases and paradigms in an industry where in Peru, only 7% are women.

The challenge has been significant, but we started with a baseline to have objective data of our situation, and from that, we created a policy and action plan with specific KPIs to close the most relevant gaps.

After several years since founding the committee, I am proud that: today we have four action axes (company, contractors, community, and prevention of sexual harassment), with active participation from various departments; we have received the Safe Company certification granted by the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations; we have launched a vocational training program for mine operations and mentoring programs to develop women’s skills within the organisation; we have received recognition from ELSA and the IDB for having the most robust trust level and prevention system among other companies. There is still much to do, but progress is being made.