About

Leticia León Gonzalez began building the legal department of Sandoz de México in 1990 and soon became the legal head of the entire group containing 11 companies in diverse sectors. Following divestments and a merger with Ciba-Geigy, the Novartis Group was created in 1996 as a leading provider of healthcare solutions. León Gonzalez took regional responsibility for one its subsidiaries, Ciba Specialty Chemicals covering Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern Latin America until 2004. Following this she was appointed legal head for the operations in Mexico, but her responsibility expanded to Latin America and Canada when she became a member of the global pharma legal leadership team in 2012. Two years later León Gonzalez also became responsible for compliance matters and was appointed to her current position of regional legal and compliance head for Latin America and Canada. She is also a member of the regional senior management, where she actively participates in some of the global strategical objectives. Currently leading a team that includes 28 lawyers and 14 compliance officers, León Gonzalez is ‘proud of building a group that consider the global trends and capitalise on opportunities while preventing potential risks’. Under her current role, León Gonzalez has built an effective cross collaboration between different geographies, internal functions and external key stakeholders in different projects, including brand defence strategies that have lead the organisation to obtain unprecedented judicial resolutions shaping the legal environment. She notes strengthening patents and an exclusivity right protecting investments as her biggest achievements.