About

Since returning to Colombia in 2012 after a fourteen month spell working for the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Natalia Alarcon Bernal has excelled in the financial sector. Now at French leading multinational bank BNP Paribas, she is currently corporate secretary and head of legal for all of BNP’s CIB (Corporate and Institutional Banking) entities in Colombia. Despite only being in the role, and company for that matter, since October 2017, Alarcon has already added value by building the legal area from the ground up: ‘I have built an area with the focus on managing the legal risk while supporting the business on their day to day transactions’, she states. She also says that assuming the managerial role at BNP Paribas Colombia has also given her ‘the opportunity to break down gender and age related stereotypes, making me feel proud and empowered in one of the most important financial institutions’. Prior to BNP, Alarcon spent three and a half years in the CIB and Treasury area of BBVA Colombia where she led on the legal aspects of the company’s international bond issuance for US$400m. She highlights that the experience there, ‘exposed [her] to the inner workings of a large bank, taught that an open doors approach is the best way to lead a legal department and the importance of knowing the business to be able to provide suitable legal advice’. Alarcon had also impressed employers prior to BBVA when she spent two years in the International and Treasury Division at Banco de Bogota between 2012 and 2014.