About

Founded in 1975, Viscofan produces equipment for the meat production industry, and now sells its goods in over 120 countries. Chief legal officer Elena Ciordia has a wealth of experience with Viscofan, having worked there since 2001, and now leads a legal team of four lawyers. Ciordia has been mindful that the company’s precipitous growth over the last few years has made it ‘necessary to increase resources devoted to risk mitigation through implementation, monitoring, supervising and controlling guidelines of the Group’s activities’. Alongside this, the team has worked towards new technological innovations to assist knowledge-sharing. She explains that they ‘created the Intranet site of the Viscofan Group, [which is] basically a large digital legal library containing the legal documentation of the Group’ – an initiative which will allow any department to access and analyse legal information themselves. When dealing with M&A activity, the team ‘takes the lead in key strategic, negotiating, and diligence considerations involved in the transaction’. A notable example of the team’s success in this area was seen during the company’s acquisition of Vector Group Europe and Vector Group USA in a multi-billion dollar deal. Ciordia describes the impact of this deal as significant: ‘After this acquisition, Viscofan Group has strengthened its positioning in plastic technology, widened its product portfolio and enhanced production capacity for the main markets for this type of casings: USA and Europe’. Apart from Ciordia, deputy legal director David Gonzalez brings further experience to the team, having been at Viscofan for over three years after a career in private practice. Overall, the team maintains a conscientious approach to supporting the company. Ciordia extrapolates on how she believes the team should operate: ‘The legal department should ensure that the main activity of the Viscofan Group develops in an environment of minimal legal risks, taking into account the circumstances inherent in the business, as well as other accessory circumstances which can occur at any time: such as geographical, personal or political’.