About

Having spent over eight years in private practice for both Chilean and international law firms, Daniel Weinstein decided that he wanted more impact by working in-house rather than as an external lawyer. Whilst at law firm Morales & Besa he had the chance to act on all projects for a client from inception to stability in its market. This experience made him realise that ‘the best way to have an impact was to be involved in all aspects of the business and operations of a given company, overseeing projects since inception. And the best way to do that was to work in-house’. As result, in 2013 he joined SNC-Lavalin, an international engineering and construction group with around 40,000 employees globally, to take charge of its legal matters in Chile and Peru. He created the legal department in those countries, overcoming a negative internal perception by teaming up with executives and simplifying complex legal matters for them. Weinstein did the same in his next role as general counsel of QPX, which is part of Quantum Pacific Group, a conglomerate with interests across a broad range of industries in five continents. At QPX he negotiated and executed a strategic alliance and joint venture with Barrick Gold in 2015, in one of the largest green field exploration agreements in the world in recent years, with a deal value of $150m. Weinstein says of the deal that it was: ‘Key to thoroughly understand the strategy, risks and goals of both Barrick Gold and QPX in the negotiations’. He was also instrumental in a deal between QPX and Asset Chile, which involved obtaining financing granted by the Fenix Program of CORFO (Chilean Economic Development Agency), an agency interested in promoting mining discoveries in Chile. He was subsequently appointed as director of the board of Exo29, the company created by the deal with Asset Chile. In early 2017, Weinstein was recruited by global mining behemoth BHP Billiton. As a legal manager in the Minerals division, the company’s major operation in the region, Weinstein leads the legal team in charge of Projects and Supply. He is ‘involved in the negotiations and the execution of the company’s infrastructure projects. In this position, I have been involved in infrastructure projects aiming to extend, sustainably, the life of the mines that the company operates and to secure water for the operations’.