About

Anabell González Nava began working for fast food chain giant, McDonald’s Corporation, in 2005 as general counsel for central and Latin America. Whilst many directors were removed, González Nava retained her position in 2007 when McDonald’s Corporation’s regional operators formed Arcos Dorados and acquired the Latin American business from the multinational. Arcos Dorados serves 4.3 million customers per day in its 3,000 restaurants, and employs 90,000 staff. As part of her role she is responsible for the drafting, coordination, execution and negotiation of vendor agreements with all the McDonald´s Mexican and Central American providers. Also dealing with corporate, competition and compliance issues, González Nava leads a team of six and holds responsibility over seven jurisdictions including Mexico, Guatemala, Panama and Nicaragua. In order to manage the diverse workload, González Nava has structured the legal team as three broad departments: corporate, licensing and administration and agreements. Under her instruction, each sub-department works with law firms on a retainer only basis in order to save costs. She also personally trains the team regularly on FCPA compliance and PROFECO consumer training. As a result of her initiatives González Nava has reduced the consumer protection fines of the company as well as eliminated its legal contingency fees on financial statements, which stood at $8m when she joined. Navigating the company through the changes during its inception has been a challenge. For example, converting voting rights of franchisees in the company based on sales rather than number of restaurants, thus enhancing decision making powers on promotion and marketing. In 2007, González Nava drew particular recognition when lobbying to the government over a VAT exemption received by one the company’s competitors. The successful arguments she articulated earned her an internal President’s Award. Demonstrating her success, González Nava sits on the North Latin American management board and franchise committee delivering talks on various topics such as tax to help the business understand its impact on results and guide its strategy.