About

Stephanie Montoya serves as the legal manager for Central America on behalf of British-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever. She is responsible for the six countries of Central America, including Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. ‘Being responsible for six jurisdictions with several and different challenges, such as legal uncertainty, political instability, insecurity due to crime organisations, market disruptors has led me to develop creative legal solutions for the business while being committed to always maintain the company’s business integrity values’, explains Montoya. As part of the board of directors and leadership team of Central America, Montoya has become an active player in the definition of the company’s business goals, providing high visibility and relevance to the legal function. It is to this end, that under her management, the legal function in Central America has put a special focus on business partnering, becoming a function that has a deep understanding of the business and the core activities of the company. Montoya oversees the legal team in its management of the anti-counterfeit agenda not only for Central America but for Middle Americas, something which Montoya says requires the development of strong technical capabilities and synergy with other key functions to ‘lessen the disruptive effects that this phenomenon produces to the business’. In terms of large scale transactions of the company, she has played a substantive role in the recent acquisition of the home care and personal business of the multinational company, Quala, ensuring a smooth and successful transition. Furthermore, she has worked closely on the divestiture of Unilever’s global spreads business. As a member of the board of directors, Montoya takes pride in championing the diversity agenda of the company: ‘My goal is to create awareness and sponsor gender equality culture in both the workplace and home front, creating opportunities for women to lean in and thrive in any professional field, reaching their full potential. My greatest aspiration is having more women in leadership positions increasing their number of seats in decision making arenas’, she says.