About

Juan Manuel Cuellar Cabrera boasts a rich, decade-long legal career in the Colombian energy sector. After brief spells as a private practice lawyer at Duran, Acero & Osorio Abogados and academic secretary of the mediation centre at Universidad de los Andes, Cuellar Cabrera took on his first in-house role as a legal adviser at Hocol, an oil and gas business. Cuellar Cabrera instantly made a positive impression on his peers with his management of important litigation, support of negotiations and the acquisition of new assets in Latin America, leading to a quick promotion within the company. In 2008 Cuellar Cabrera became a legal adviser to the vice presidency of refining and petro-chemistry at Ecopetrol. This role incorporated the provision of legal advice to the contractual structure of the upgrading of the Barrancabermeja Refinery and equipped Cuellar Cabrera with relevant practical expertise to move forward in his career. After a year-and-a-half, Cuellar Cabrera started work at Emerald Energy, where he impressed with the implementation of legal structures across the entire pipeline and made notable contributions to strengthen the reputation of the company. Ensuring the social and political feasibility of Emerald’s operations and projects at all stages, Cuellar Cabrera managed key relationships and the appropriate implementation of strategies of communication, social responsibility and sustainability. Cuellar Cabrera eventually joined Bioenergy last year, overseeing the legal and corporate affairs of the company, and setting the strategic direction and management of litigation. Cuellar Cabrera is also asked to leverage his previous experience to lead the communication strategy behind the company’s social responsibility programme.