Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Innovation is evolving rapidly in cultural changes, organisational shifts and technological advancements. In connection with the organisational shifts and cultural changes, I have implemented a continuous learning environment in which I give courses to our legal team and invite speakers to talk about legal trends and their implications in our business to keep our team updated and motivated. Also, I lead the process of making internal audits. I encourage team members to identify and suggest new ideas to find new ways to improve processes that lead to more efficiency, leaving our legal team with more time to focus on more strategic and value-adding activities. Results from these activities include elaborating formats and a list of relevant terms and conditions for agreements to reduce elaboration time, avoiding forgetting to incorporate relevant clauses, implementing a leaner filing process and creating several backups to minimise risks and increase data protection.

In connection with technological advances, I embrace and pursue technology and digital transformation as it will further help Ainda boost efficiencies and reduce costs in the legal department. However, I also understand that implementing such technologies in our business also comes with risks and costs. Subsequently, our analysis and investigation of each new technology to be implemented in our department are extensive and thorough. As part of our digital transformation, Ainda performs pilot tests with certain tech companies to digitalise our corporate and back-office transactions and automatise certain compliance processes.

What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in Mexico?

The most exciting trends impacting the infrastructure sector in Mexico are, without a doubt, energy transition (sustainable energy) and nearshoring.

Starting with nearshoring, Mexico has the opportunity of a generation to change its growth narrative driven by global geopolitics as the US diversifies away from China. Mexico offers proximity and sophisticated manufacturing ecosystems. According to the

Inter-American Development Bank, this opportunity could yield more than USD$ 35 bn dollars of increased exports for Mexico. Unfortunately, Mexico faces electricity shortages already.

On the fortunate side, Mexico has abundant resources that it has yet to develop, from wind to solar to a rich geology of natural gas that can fuel the energy transition.

If we want to remain competitive and take advantage of geopolitics and the demands of a growing population in a sustainable manner, we need to focus on both matters. As a fund manager, Ainda will play a key role in looking for these opportunities, facilitating the development of our country’s infrastructure and energy sectors.