About

Since graduating in law from Diego Portales University in 2006, Ignacio Morales Sierra has enjoyed an impressive career path that places him among the best counsel in Chile, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. He began his in-house career in 2008 working as an in-house counsel for Socovesa, Chile’s largest real estate development company, working on all areas such as finance, business development and marketing. He reflects fondly on this period, saying it was, ‘very important to define my legal approach as a legal professional. There, as a junior lawyer I had to deal, not only with day-to-day legal issues, but also with M&A operations and issuance of local bonds, so it was a very important formative stage’. Morales then spent four years in private practice at the Barros & Errázuriz law firm before returning in-house as a senior lawyer at Coca-Cola Andina, the largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in Chile. ‘This is where my specialisation in FMCG businesses started’, he explains. After working on a variety of legal matters there such as corporate, antitrust, regulatory, labour, litigations and joint ventures as well implementing a compliance program in antitrust matters, Morales joined another FMCG giant operating in Chile, British American Tobacco (BAT). As corporate counsel manager at BAT, and although Morales’ responsibilities at Coca-Cola Andina and BAT were similar, he identifies two major differences which contributed to his further development: ‘[Firstly], exposure to working with lawyers from different markets since BAT is a truly multinational company; and [secondly], given the controversial nature of the product that the company commercialised, the regulatory part is very strong one and its always an issue that you have to be working on’. He also earned credit internally at BAT in Chile for obtaining favourable outcomes in all product liability litigations and “anti-union” complaints as well as the closing of a challenge before the Chilean Antitrust Court during his time there. Having excelled in all of these previous roles and projects, in June 2018 Morales was hired as legal manager for Kimberly-Clark with responsibility for Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. In keeping with the rest of his career, Morales is contributing heavily towards the success of the multinational personal care corporation in Chile. In under 12 months, he has driven efficiencies within the legal function with consideration for the company’s local needs, as well as taking advantage of the knowledge of the different authorities and legislations to further advance Kimberly-Clark’s goals in the region.