Daimler México’s general counsel and secretary Marcela Barreiro Castellanos boasts a varied in-house and private practice legal experience gained across a number of sectors, and takes on a wide set of responsibilities in her current role. Formerly a lawyer for the Mexican Federal Government’s revenue service, she subsequently worked as an in-house lawyer for Banobras and then Revueltas, Sarabia y Asociados law firm before initially joining Daimler México in 2008.

Since then, her duties have expanded to include being secretary of the board of all legal entities in Mexico, president of the diversity and inclusion committee and a member of the company’s operating committees in all business units. She details a number of specific career highlights that she looks back on particularly proudly: ‘After joining, I managed to achieve an 80% reduction of the trials that took place before my appointment in the company. As well as this, I implemented a strategic restructuring at the company and have had a huge impact on the people within the team; the company trusts our judgment, and see that a consolidated legal element can analyse and prevent risks’. In order to achieve this, she also played a role in the legal function’s restructure, which she describes thus: ‘The legal department was organised by specialisations, giving qualified and complete legal advice to all the business units.

In this way, my team interacts with all Group companies in Mexico, and the companies in turn have specialised lawyers who attend to their needs. My team is formed by six lawyers, four management levels and two junior lawyers serving five business units, four production plants, two parts distribution centres and the corporate entity, which in sum are more than 8,000 employees’.