About

Patricia Barja Deuer, 30 years old, born in Sucre – Bolivia, moved to the city of La Paz in 2016 in search of professional and personal growth. Passionate about law, gender equality, and leadership, she has been a legal advisor at the Sociedad Controladora Mercantil Santa Cruz for a period of over two years, the position in which she currently works. She has eight years of work experience and has qualified as both a Lawyer and an Economist. She graduated as a Lawyer from the Universidad Privada del Valle and as an Economist from the University of San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca. She also completed a master’s degree in Tax Law from the Simón Bolívar Andean University, several diplomas and remains up to date in the areas of Private Law and Corporate Governance.

She began her career overcoming many obstacles due to her young age and biased gender ideologies; however, Patricia demonstrated the courage and ability to advance in her professional career despite these. In her current position, Patricia is responsible for providing legal advice of an administrative-corporate nature to all companies that are Members of Grupo Financiero Mercantil Santa Cruz, regulated companies within the scope of the stock market, insurance services, and financial services. This, a position she reached after having served as Regulatory legal analyst of the legal affairs department of the Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz for more than 4 years and having been chosen as a potential talent of this entity and attended leadership and empowerment workshops. Patricia, who happens to be a fan of reading, as well as a fan of wine and coffee, spends her spare time looking for new cooking and baking recipes. She is also a participant in workshops for women leaders in business.