Team size: 10

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

First, it is important to mention that Porvenir, as the biggest pension fund in Colombia and the biggest institutional investor, is an entity that generates a huge impact on the financial sector of the country, due to the amount of assets under management. Additionally, Porvenir is a highly regulated and controlled entity, factors that take special attention at a legal department. The legal strategy is based on having a deeply understanding of the context and requirements of the business, especially in the investments and strategy of investments established by the Company, under a short- and long-term period. Having this aspect clear allows the legal team to analyze and find the correct options to take the correct decision. Considering the specialised sector (financial) in which Porvenir operates, the high volume of regulations applicable to it and the many control entities that supervise Porvenir, almost all decisions to be taken must have the prior approval from the legal team. This generates a big effort and challenges a legal corporate manager, because we cannot be a blocker of the development and achievements of the entity, but must ensure that all decisions, investments, and operations are taken with the fulfillment of all the applicable regulations.  

What are the main cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?  

During 2023 Porvenir had to fulfill a new regulation which forced it to invest at least 3% of the assets under management in local private equity funds which invest in local projects. Due to the size of the local private equity market, the amount of assets under management, and the reduce time to fulfill this regulation, Porvenir had to face an investment process which has been a record in different aspects. As legal corporate manager, my team and I was in charge of negotiating the legal documents (subscription documents and LPA) with three private equity funds at the same time. Usually in Colombia the investment process at a vehicle of this nature can take around 8 months, only one fund. In this opportunity we reached the goal of having the legal documents ready to invest at the three funds in only two months. Additionally, the tickets per fund were amounts that get over the average of prior investments. These transactions were made 100% by the legal team at Porvenir, without the advice or support from an external counsel or law firm. These type of transactions and the amounts of them, usually are type of transactions that allows the law firms to earn awards or be listed at the top ranked law firms, however in this opportunity the legal team of Porvenir structured them by themselves.  

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?  

From a corporate governance perspective, which is and aspect that involves my role and position, Porvenir has been very active in introducing indicators and procedures, which support this ESG factor. On one hand, Porvenir created a new indicator which measures the percentage of participation of each member of the board of directors, allowing the Company to identify the level of assistance and commitment of each member. On the other hand, Porvenir implemented an evaluation made to the board of director as a corporate body, made by an external expert on this field. The evaluation generates improvement opportunities, which have been developed during 2023.