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

I lead a team in different countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Perú, Paraguay and Bolivia), and the importance of the cases or transactions depends on each country. Regionally one of the most significant legal impacts are in projects such as joint ventures or spin off. The public latest one I can name, before the pandemic, was the sale of one business unit to Cardinal Health Care (2018-2019).

During the pandemic, our ventilator equipment also became a challenge in our region, due to different factors, so we worked with the public and private sector to ensure that more patients had access to medical technology in accordance with the relevant regulations in each country.

My team and I also supported the introduction of new technologies through our region, which allows access to more patients, contracts with strategic clients, and allows continuous support of the medical education in our therapies. Examples of these are the introduction of Hugo Ras robot in Chile, and different new technologies such as the insulin pump Minimed 780 in Argentina.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how do you intend to assist with this?

Medtronic’s focus for the current fiscal year is operational excellence, ID&E, patient safety and quality, and a high standard of ethics.

In quality, safety and ethics, the legal team help the business to comply with regulations and standards, working and supporting patients’ access, and educating our internal clients, but also looking for opportunities with the external ones.

We developed a Legal Portal 2.0, a tool that tracks any contract revision made by legal, but also contains legal approved templates ready to be use, guidelines, and procedures to help employees in the daily work, following our mission, and complying with local legislation. We also developed a marketing material legal guide.

What do you feel is the best way to get more women into in-house legal leadership positions?

I believe, companies currently have an opportunity to work on inclusion and diversity, including the equity for women. Giving women possibilities to be in leadership positions, including the deliverance of mentoring programmes, to have more women prepared to access to leadership positions, and guarantee maternity leaves, without fear of retaliation are all vital. This should be done with a purpose and a clear objective. Women make a unique contribution and face unique opportunities in the business world. Gender equity affects more than equal pay for equal work. At Medtronic we have a vision to be the recognised inclusion, diversity and equity global leader in healthcare. Moreover, in our legal team we are majority of women, and as a leader I must be accountable role model for diversity and inclusion.