About

In May 2017 Felipe Bunster joined Mutual de Seguridad, a mutual healthcare company committed to being leaders in the development of social security in Chile, to head a legal team of 14 lawyers and nine administrative staff. Bunster was headhunted by the company as he has developed a strong reputation in Chile’s in-house legal market for achievements in previous roles. Immediately prior to his current position, Bunster was manager of legal matters at Empresas La Polar, one of Chile’s largest retail companies. From 2013 onwards, Bunster was responsible for successfully closing the company’s Colombian subsidiary and the full corporate restructuring of La Polar, which involved the creation of new subsidiaries and tributary planning. He was part of the team that achieved the issue of VISA La Polar (the new credit card offer to the clients of the group). Another of Bunster’s significant achievements at La Polar was overseeing the lender renegotiation process where in 2015, as part of a bond swap, he facilitated ‘the capitalisation of the historical debt of the company, which initially amounted to $1bn’. Bunster gained further recognition at La Polar for tackling a number of issues such as reforms in labour and tax laws and the impact of Supreme Court judgements that led to the creation of SERNAC Financiero, part of Chile’s National Consumer Service, which forced the company to change all contracts and rates as well as appreciate greater regulatory scrutiny. Before his time at La Polar, Bunster was legal manager at Viña Undurraga, one of the most prestigious and historical vineyards in Chile, where he says his biggest highlight was opening a representative office in Shanghai. He also had successful in-house stints in the financial sector serving the legal departments in CorpBanca between 2010 and 2011 and Banco de Chile immediately prior.