Team size: 30

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

The most significant case to be mentioned is certainly the solution of the 20-year old pending case related to the Chocolates Garoto acquisition, in a settlement approved unanimously by CADE’s Commissioners in June/2023, and subsequently the acquisition of Grupo CRM, owner of Koppenhagen, Brasil Cacau and KopKoffee, agreed and signed in September/2023 and approved by CADE and closed in March/2024.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

Besides the obvious technical quality, it is key for any in-house lawyer of a food company to understand the dynamics of the food industry, from the origin of our ingredients to the habits of our consumers. We must act as guardians of the company’s assets, people and reputation, without losing the ability to find ways of doing business compliantly in a competitive and disruptive way.

How have you fostered a closer collaboration between the legal department and your business counterparts?

We have implemented the role of Legal Business Partners within the entire team. Every lawyer in the team, especially my direct reports but not only, besides their areas of technical expertise, are single points of contact to the various business and corporate units of the company, being active members of each unit’s leadership team.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

Food Security and fighting Food Waste! It is unacceptable to have almost 70 million Brazilians living in poverty conditions, without proper access to food and yet have one of the highest levels of food waste in the world. Besides being responsible for the Food Donation, the company makes (both regularly and in catastrophe situations), I also lead our work on the agenda of creating conditions to fight Food Waste in the country and ensuring Food Security to the population. Being Nestlé the largest Food company in the World, it is our duty to do this, and I embraced it passionately.