About

Formerly at Citibank in Bogotá, Colombia, Natalia Benítez has been at global pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for almost five years and is currently counsel for the Andean region. ‘I chose an in-house career for its engagement with the business world’, she notes, ‘to be in an interdisciplinary environment where one encounters different professional specialists, perspectives and opinion’. Her remit covers Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Chile, and given the highly-regulated nature of the pharmaceutical sector, each jurisdiction throws up its own difficulties. ‘Chile is undoubtedly the easiest country to work in but they all have their demands. In Colombia, there is price regulation for medicines and we are currently awaiting reforms in the health sector, and in Ecuador there is a complicated governmental scenario with imports in the alimentary sector affecting our nutrition business. Venezuela is tough too and in both countries one has to struggle with new norms on an ongoing basis’. If, externally, regulatory matters are the key concern, internally she has ‘had to market the department within the company’ and ‘effect an entire change of culture’ so as to have the department recognised as ‘trusted colleagues who are key to all business negotiations’ and ‘which adds value’.