About

As the Colombian head of legal at one of the world’s largest companies, it would be inaccurate to describe Juan Pablo Ovalle Arana as a “rising star”. Nonetheless, Ovalle Arana’s relatively young age has led many to tip him as a future legal leader in Latin America. Since 2011 Ovalle Arana has been leading the legal department of IBM Colombia, where his wide-ranging commercial and legal expertise has won him many plaudits. Ovalle Arana has worked on a number of significant deals, including IBM’s first public contract with the Colombian government. Ovalle Arana says his biggest contribution has been to help facilitate a ‘simplified way of doing business’ by working with engineers and commercial partners to ensure legal processes are faster and better suited to commercial needs. Prior to joining IBM, he spent five years as counsel at the Colombian offices of Chinese multinational telecoms equipment and services company Huawei Technologies.