About

Longstanding and distinguished in-house lawyer Michelle Alexandra Canelo Juarez, has worked at Cargill since starting her career in 1998, assuming different roles and responsibilities along the way. She has been a specialist lawyer on labour and employment, the environment and food law matters and also served a two year period where she was responsible for litigation matters. After this she was appointed as the lawyer responsible in Nicaragua during a nine month assignment to lead the integration soon after Cargill had acquired poultry business Tip Top Industrial, which Canelo says gave her a broader perspective on legal risks in different countries. Canelo went on to assume the role of legal manager for Central America in 2008 which gave her the opportunity to work closely with an extraordinary group of people, helping them achieve their full potential and strengthening her business acumen. Her trajectory at Cargill has continued upwards as this year she was appointed legal manager for Colombia, a country in which Cargill has different businesses who are looking to expand and continue growing. Along the way, Canelo has enjoyed being not only a lawyer but a key asset to the company and ultimately a business leader: ‘This implies a challenging and critical role not only to think of what is legally possible to do, but also, what does it make sense for the business under specific circumstances, and how to best deliver practical and valued based solutions’, she says. She operates with a positive outlook, ‘As an individual contributor at the beginning of my career, I understand that I was influencing others with my example. Now as a leader, manager, I act intentionally to influence positively others, my director’s reports, my peers, my business partners’. Most recently Canelo was the commercial lead on an important acquisition of a Colombian poultry business, Pollos El Bucanero, which allowed Cargill to strengthen its footprint in this critical country. Another more personal project which she says she is ‘truly happy, humbled and honoured’ to be a part of is the creation in February of 2018 of the first and only In-House Counsel Association in Central America which she was appointed as president for a two year term. ‘This has been a vision turned into a reality with hard work, working alongside inspiring people who dare to dream big’, says Canelo.