About

Ana Carol de Benedetti has had an extensive career in the airline industry, having overseen legal entities and operations in Central America, South America and the US, having started working with TACA Airlines in 1997 as a contracts administrator. In 2000 she was promoted to aircraft contracts manager, where she was in charge of all contracts related to aircrafts and engines, including their purchase, finance, maintenance, and operation. After this she was promoted to contracts director, where she was additionally in charge of all contracts to be signed by TACA Airlines. de Benedetti describes TACA as an ‘amazing place to work’ due to the international breadth of the operations, which provided a strong spring-board to start her in-house career: ‘I had the opportunity to work in many international and cross border transactions which involved multiple jurisdictions,
such as loans, private placements guaranteed with credit card receivables, aircraft sale and lease backs and
co-branded credit cards issuance. Working for an international company introduced me to New York and to all matter related to such sophisticated law’, says de Benedetti. In 2009 Avianca Airlines Colombia, and TACA entered into agreements whereby a majority stake in TACA’s shares was bought by Avianca. TACA and Avianca united their own frequent flyer programs in one single loyalty program: LifeMiles. In 2011 she started working exclusively for LifeMiles as its legal manager, in charge of all legal aspects in all countries where it operates. In 2016 she was promoted to general counsel and has since been responsible for the large scale changes and projects that the company has embarked on, including its 2017 corporate reorganisation which aimed to optimize its fiscal model and strengthen its commercial and legal position. Amongst these projects is the 2012-2015 carve out process from Avianca airlines, with the aim of converting itself into an entity with its own goals, with a team completely focused on the loyalty business. ‘I had worked with airlines for approximately fifteen years when this process started. I learned that as a professional it is important to new ideas and new ways of doing business. It is essential to accept change and to promote and look for new and different ways of doing business’, reveals de Benedetti. It is to this end that she is constantly looking for ways to improve the relationship with internal clients, regularly holding meetings with the commercial team to better understand their needs. Some of her significant transactions include in the process that involved 30% of LifeMiles being bought by Advent International, for more than US$300m.