About

With an in-house career that began in 1989, René Buentello Carbonell is vastly experienced in the natural resources sector. His first 13 years were spent in the industrial division of global conglomerate Grupo Carso serving as legal manager to its subsidiaries, Grupo Nacobre and Grupo Aluminio, which specialise in the manufacture, commercialisation and distribution of metals. Buentello Carbonell then went on to work at the Mexican state oil company subsidiary Pemex-Gas between 2002 and 2007 and Pemex-Refinacion until 2008. After Sempra, a Fortune 500 company, bought the assets of Grupo el Paso in 2010, whilst he was serving there as commercial and business development director, Buentello Carbonell agreed to join the acquiring company as general counsel. In 2013 Sempra Mexico changed its corporate name to IEnova and one year later Buentello Carbonell was appointed vice president and general counsel reporting directly to the president and CEO. Since his move to Sempra, Buentello Carbonell created an independent legal department for the public company, having previously been totally reliant on outside counsel advice. Another career highlight was providing the legal solutions which made it possible for the company to be the owner of the first private ethane pipeline in Mexico, before the energy reform of 2014. On quantifying his work, Buentello Carbonell mentions the obtainment of excellent ratings from Mexico’s Security and Banking Commission adding ‘this is wonderful for a highly regulated company such as IEnova.’