Considering GFNorte’s status as one of Mexico’s largest banks and the largest financial group controlled by Mexican investors, Héctor Martín Ávila Flores holds a prominent position in the country’s in-house legal market serving the institution as general counsel, secretary of the board and managing director for legal affairs. Having served the company in this position since 2012, he is credited with a number of achievements including restructuring the legal team into a leaner and more efficient department comprised of around 400 legal and 100 operational employees.

He also worked on the 2010 merger of IXE and Banorte valued at approximately US$1.3bn and the bank’s 2013 global IPO in which the Group raised US$2.5bn. More recently in 2017, he assisted on facilitating the company’s strategic partnership with PayPal and later played a key role on GFNorte’s merger agreement with Grupo Financiero Interacciones (GFInter) worth a reported US$1.4bn.