About

The Chilean operations of Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), the world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure, are supported by a lean two-person legal team. Rodrigo Schele Velasco assumed the role of general counsel for Chile at FMC in 2015 and, until March 2018, was solely responsible for all local legal matters. Schele’s broad role sees him work closely with senior figures across the company – including the chief executive and chief financial officer – and alongside key medical area and commercial teams while operating an open-door policy to more junior members of staff who need support. Since joining FMC, Schele has significantly reduced response times for legal matters, including contracts and commercial agreements, ensuring the legal function is seen as a valuable partner to business rather than, ‘a place where things go to die’.
As on March 2018, Schele has taken on a mandate to build the legal team, hiring María José Cifuentes Vera to provide legal advice on issues across the company, particularly contracts and public tenders. Although new to the company, Cifuentes is already credited by Schele as a key part of the organisation. She is, he says, ‘well recognised for a committed and proactive approach which is enabling us to provide better solutions to the challenges we face.’
Schele is a member of Latin America legal team of FMC, a growing market for the company, and now reports to Celia Cleim, who was appointed as its Brazil-based pan-Latina America general counsel in 2017. His pedigree as an in-house adviser resulted in numerous nominations for this year’s GC Powerlist. For example, in the last three years he has acted an adjudication in connection with a public health tender which will see FMC bring dialysis services to the local market for the next three years, completed several M&A projects in a sector frequently exposed to high regulatory and legislative burdens, and successfully participated in many union negotiations, helping to avoid possible strike actions that could compromise the safety of FMC’s patients.
Prior to joining FMC Schele served as Latin America counsel representing the enterprise software division of global power and automation technology group ABB. This, he says, gave him the opportunity to, ‘take responsibility for local and regional projects while also grow as an international lawyer by understanding different types of pressures, expectations, and cultures when it comes to negotiating and doing business.’ He had previously worked at IBM’s Chilean office, an experience which exposed him to, ‘a way of delivering legal services that was markedly different from the approach taken by many local companies’. He began his in-house career at Banco de Chile, the largest Chilean bank by revenue and one of the largest regional banks by assets.