About

The in-house team at hotelier Decameron is highly skilled and plays an important part in the continued growth of the company’s portfolio across Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean. Led by Juan Pablo Barrera, vice-president and general counsel of the company, the team has been in period of growth and prior to his appointment five years ago the company did not have an in-house team. Barrera explains that, ‘aiming to create a competent, qualified and business oriented team, we entered a phase of recruiting talent and reorganising the existing off counsel legal support, with the aim to create a group that could support the legal advisory needs of a multinational company with ever expanding objectives and projects’. Today the team consists of 14 lawyers divided into four divisions, including a Panama division led by Héctor Perez Portillo, director – Panama. Ana Lucia Giraldo, corporate director – corporate affairs, leads the corporate division which also covers the company’s M&A transactions and is has four lawyers. Mari Claudia Caceres, corporate director hotel affairs leads the division in charge of all legal advice to the hospitality, travel agency and time-sharing businesses. It consists of three lawyers, including Mari Claudia. María Fernanda Olano, corporate director –labour affairs manages the division in charge of all legal labour related matters in the organisation with three lawyers, including María Fernanda. Across the entire team, highlights include the acquisition of a significant property in Barú, near Cartagena in Colombia in which a new hotel will be built and legal support to the company in the construction works made in the Maryland Hotel in San Andrés Island in Colombia, involving a near total rebuild. On his team’s culture Barrera identifies that ‘we strive to have the determination and are fully committed to achieve excellence. As a team, we are tied by an unrelenting effort to pursue the company’s goals and help it reach the new levels of success by being its business partners as well as legal advisors’.