About

Jamie Ignacio Escobar Muñoz started his career at prestigious law firms in Colombia, such as Zuleta and Partners Legal Group and Cuberos, Cortes, Gutierrez Lawyers, specialising in a wide area of topics from corporate, commercial, energy, IP, to technology, litigation, tax and international arbitration. He first moved in-house at Banco Daviviendia, the second largest financial institution in Colombia, and developed his talent at negotiation and drafting of commercial contracts in the financial sector. He greatly enjoyed the rush of execution of deals, and solving complex legal issues in innovative ways. Afterwards, he went to Triana, Uribe and Michelsen, another prestigious law firm in Bogotá, working in commercial litigation and M&A. Escobar then collaborated to open the law firm Diaz, Escobar & Associates in August, 2014 before going back in-house at Fox Channels Colombia. After ten months he left for Uber to take up his current position, legal transactions counsel for Latin America. At Fox, Escobar first took on a regional role and developed his expertise in Ecuadorean regulations. Escobar was involved in the aftermath of the Chapecoense’s airplane crash, he and the team ‘were responsible for handling the relationship with the Brazilian Embassy in Bogota and the legal team of Fox Sports in Brazil, in order to obtain the death certificates of the deceased journalists and also to help gather their belongings and send them back to their loved ones’, he explains adding, ‘This was a very dramatic situation that taught me a lot about crisis management’. He took this experience into his role at Uber for whom he is responsible for Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia for Uber’s Rides and Eats businesses. During his time at Uber its business has greatly expanded in Colombia with the negotiation of contracts for Uber Eats with some of Colombia’s top restaurant chains. He has also led the launch of Uber Rides in Ecuador and Uber Eats in Peru. These expansions have accompanied Escobar’s innovation in the internal systems within the legal department. He implemented a new efficiency measures, such as customisable promotional agreement templates with the legal drafting already completed. This has increased business by shortening the time between contact with the legal department and the promotion’s approval by the counterparty. Escobar says that ‘this initiative also helped to change the perception of the legal department, going from a blocker, to a business partner who is truly interested in achieving the internal clients’ goals’. With such achievements, it is easy to understand why nominators highlighted Escobar’s credentials during this year’s research.