Patrícia Mendes was contracted by Volkswagen Financial Services Group to work on the project of establishing a branch of Volkswagen branch in Portugal. This Portuguese branch of the multinational financial services company has since been established and began its financial activity in 2012, at which time Mendes assumed the position of head of legal and compliance. In 2017 the business saw a reorganisation where the Volkswagen Bank’s entity and branches in Europe were separated from Volkswagen Financial Services.

After the reorganisation and the complex technical and legal aspects to it, Mendes assumed her current position exclusively for Volkswagen Renting Unipessoal, providing legal and compliance services to the bank branch. Mendes cites the establishment of the of the bank’s branch in Portugal as one of her top career highlights, being a part of defining the most relevant processes and taking part in business decisions requiring to start the branch overall activity. ‘This has been a great achievement because it was not only to start a legal and compliance department, but also a company from scratch, enriching me in the position as head of legal and compliance but also as manager with a 360º view of the company’ says Mendes.

She has established and designed the legal department, taking pride in building a function that could be seen as supportive and an ‘enabler for the business’. Mendes is extremely versatile and knowledgable across a range of legal and business fields; she also leads the GDPR strategy for both Volkswagen Bank and Volkswagen Renting, which is now in its implementation phase.