David Gustavo Lamoyi’s career prior to joining Grupo Aeroméxico was one of public service, first with the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco), and later the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP). He first joined Mexico’s flag air carrier in 2005 as vice president legal contracts and litigation, and his role with the company has expanded steadily since this time; he was made senior vice president of compliance and corporate social responsibility in 2008 (where he founded the department) and general counsel in 2013, with corporate senior vice president of compliance responsibilities added to this in 2016.

Lamoyi has been at the forefront of some of the company’s most important long and short-term projects over the course of his tenure, including defending the company’s indispensable landing and take-off slot rights at Mexico City Airport and the signing of the cooperation agreement with Delta Airlines – a project that he describes as a ‘very complex, regulation-intensive joint venture between a Mexican and US carrier that hadn’t been attempted before’. In particular, however, he played an instrumental role in the successfully gained regulatory approval for a cash tender offer made by Delta Airlines for 49% of the company as one of the most important deals he has been involved with. ‘This was a historic transaction for the Mexican airline industry and the biggest investment a foreign airline has made in a Mexican carrier’.

Lamoyi has also had much to contribute in terms of increasing the visibility and accessibility of the legal function to the company as a whole, and explains that he ‘changed the way the organisation perceived the legal department’, via a number of measures including ‘regularly holding seminars to train people outside the law department about routine responsibilities that have a legal implication’, a proactive step that was responsible for a corresponding increase in the legal capabilities of the organisation as a whole.