About

Marcelo Fica Aránguez, director of legal affairs and compliance officer, joined WOM in 2012, when the company was still controlled by the US telecom holding NII Holdings and operated in Chile under the brand Nextel. From there he was promoted through the ranks from specialist lawyer to his current role in 2018. He leads a team of more than 12 lawyers and his responsibilities within the company have evolved to become more strategic. In the words of a nominator, ‘Fica is an outstanding general counsel thanks to his timely responses and quality legal work. He and his team have built a strong reputation in the industry for their excellent legal advice’. Fica identifies that one of the most important highlights of his career was the acquisition of Nextel Chile by Novator and the change of culture within the company that came along with that change of control. Nextel became WOM and, as a consequence of such change of name, the company embraced a new way of doing things. Fica highlights that, ‘this new dynamic implemented by WOM started to demand a different approach from all of the members of the legal team, starting with me. To be able to face complex and sophisticated problems and find out practical, effective and fast solutions to the same. The “WOM era” has been remarked as a culture of openness and innovation and the legal team I lead has been encouraged to be proactive and to think “out of the box” in order to allow the company to achieve those new principles. For me, it has been a period of great learning and I have grown in autonomy and decision-making capabilities’. Some of the changes that Fica has made simplify internal processes and expedite legal reviews. He has also implemented an internal service requirement protocol which every lawyer and officer of the company has to follow. This digital tool allows the commercial and marketing team to easily understand and monitor legal processes. Fica has been involved in a broad range of transactions and litigations that have been important and critical for the company including secretarial, corporate, regulatory, IT, financing, litigation and antitrust aspects related to its mobile telecoms operations. He has been in charge of negotiation of three tranches loans, for a total of more than US$450m, the disbursements of such loans were aimed at financing the expansion and updating of WOM telecoms network. Also, he has been in charge of negotiating several contracts for amounts that exceed US$600m with the most important manufacturers for the purchase of the telecoms equipment for WOM’s network. In the words of a nominator, ‘at WOM, Marcelo Fica is an outstanding general counsel thanks to his timely responses and quality legal work. He and his team have built a strong reputation in the industry for their excellent legal advice’.