About

Assuming the position of head of legal in March 2018 for Siemens Healthineers in Chile, Cristián Ceballos Argo has made a significant impact on the Chilean operations at the multinational medical technology company. As part of this, he is implementing changes within the legal department to drive efficiencies with regard to contract management, the coordination of external counsel work as well as internal coordination with the management and the different business lines. ‘Regarding contract management, it has been a very relevant measure of improvement, as it has helped to get a decrease in non-conformity costs, at the same time that has meant a mitigation in the risk of not fulfilling our obligations in due time’, Ceballos explains. He is also credited for taking the initiative to train non-legal staff to remain conscious of legal and risk matters: ‘Sometimes people may ignore, due to their professional background, important things about certain matters that can have a big impact on the company from a legal, reputational or financial perspective, among others. From my standpoint, besides providing on-demand answers and general support, it is very important to create awareness about the eventual legal impact or risks associated to our activities in the company and the business we are in’. Before taking on his current role, Ceballos worked for Siemens Chile giving support to various of the divisions of the company such as power generation services, mobility, procurement, and healthcare for more than three years, initially as a contract manager before becoming legal counsel at the company. His main achievements during this period include supporting the demerger merger process in Chile, when Siemens’ healthcare business was separated from Siemens Chile, creating Siemens Healthcare as an independent company, in a global process that took place during 2015 and 2016. He also assisted on the carve out of Siemens wind power business, and its merger process with Gamesa and highlights the successful work done with the power generation services team to negotiate a LTP contract with a very important company in Chile, and ensure the performance of maintaining the turbines as important moments in his career. Before Siemens, Ceballos worked at wireless service operator Nextel (now WOM) where he was responsible for drafting, negotiating and implementing several contract with several suppliers for the launch of 3G services between 2011 and 2012. Ceballos says that these aforementioned achievements have been highly relevant to his career as legal professional: ‘They have taught me for example, how to work in a multinational environment, coordinating my legal support with the activities of other work streams, in order to get a final result. In these days, the capacity of working together with colleagues from different cultures and with different professional backgrounds seems to me a key element in order to be successful and have good perspective in your career’.