What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The number one challenge was the definition and execution of the strategy to close one of the biggest litigation cases we had in one of the countries where we operate. This was challenging due to the diverse factors surrounding the case, participants, and different interests, but mainly how representative the closing and moving forward of this represented for the overall definition of the company´s next steps.

We lead the case and worked very closely with other multidisciplinary areas in the company, and a strong partnership with our external counsels, a way of working that demonstrates how successful we are when there are clearly defined expectations, open communication, and active listening of opinions, but always with one goal in mind and trusted relationships.

In which ways have you attempted to bring the legal department closer to your business colleagues?

As in-house counsel, the most important consideration is to know your business, how it operates and especially why we operate – our purpose. Being aware of this makes you part of the business and not only an independent advisor. So, I challenge my team every day to avoid phrases like “this is the legal opinion, but this is a business decision…” and instead say “I am part of this business and for this reason, our legal recommendation is…”.

The value proposition as in-house counsel is to be a trusted partner that enables possibilities, through frictionless solutions, a risk-based approach and data driven. I have encouraged my team to be close to the business by visiting our stores and plants, being partners by design, giving opinions from the customer´s needs and perspectives.

The most important skills I consider essential in our role are to be an active listener, have clear communication, curiosity, learning agility and emotional intelligence. As we face new challenges and an environment of certain loopholes due to new initiatives, it is important to keep learning and developing diverse talents and inclusion of different opinions throughout the team. So, my main objective this year is to strengthen talent with the right structure and the right skills for each of the team members through education, training, mentorships, and cross skill projects.

Finally, but not less important, are technology competences, and how we can incorporate tools in our day a day to support decision-making process based on data and key performance indicators for better risk analysis, simplification of the processes, generate efficiencies and continues improvement. We have created a monthly scorecard with the most important indicators of the area which is shared with the different business areas; we have also developed tools for data analysis and reporting, as well as internal and external dashboards.