About

Gabriel Tapia Calvino has extensive experience of managing corporate compliance in a number of different businesses. In 2014 he joined multinational pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, initially as the Latin America regional support head, and in 2018 he took care of the legal operations of the PAC multi-country organisation which is headquartered in Panama – a Latin America cluster containing the 21 countries of Central America, The Caribbean, Ecuador and Bolivia. He states that joining the company has been the most enriching experience he has had since becoming a lawyer, in part due to the team he works with, which he describes as ‘the most professional, committed and cooperative team I have ever worked with, moreover because all of us are aware of our purpose, which is “empowering the life” of our colleagues, stakeholders and especially our company’s patients’. He has broad experience as an outside counsel, providing legal advice to corporations, private interest foundations, investments, securities, mergers and acquisitions and offshore entities in relation to Panamanian law and international commerce. During his time at Sanofi he has developed an efficient communication frame within the legal function and with stakeholders, allowing the processes to be more agile. He also developed the standardisation of specific contracts for regional activities such as license in and out agreements and the contractual diagnostic testing scheme for rare diseases. ‘By having these activities duly mapped and framed with appropriate contract templates I helped make regional transaction closing time lower than before’, says Tapia. Earlier in his career he joined the Panama branch of Citibank, where he was head of the legal documentation, collateral and securities custody department. In 2009 he joined LG Electronics to be the Latin America regional assistant general counsel and compliance officer. Tapia started his career as a legal intern in Benedetti & Benedetti, overseeing the intellectual property procedures of the National Ministry of Commerce and industries of Panama, and reflects, ‘It was my first experience in the legal world, it was very enriching because it changed my way of thinking about how to be a lawyer’.