Legal and HR director | Pan American Silver
Alejandro Fernández Ramírez-Buendía
Legal and HR director | Pan American Silver
Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Attorney at law with broad experience in Business Law, Corporate and Litigation, with master’s degree in International Business Law from Universidad Complutense, a master´s degree in Legal Argumentation, LLM from Northwestern, an MBA and a General Management degree, both from IE Business School and an Oil & Gas Management degree from Thunderbird School. Currently I am preforming as Legal & HR Director in which we manage to identify all operation factors to provide legal counseling in all business units with full compliance and enforcement of all policies and better practices in accordance with laws and protocols.
In this role I handle legal matters from corporate structures, due diligence, compliance, inter-government relationships, litigation procedures in criminal, labour affairs trails, commercial and civil law, as international structures for specific protects (Europe, Asia, South America), administration and execution of all type of contracts from international debt bonds, ship building and helicopter contracts, offshore construction contracts, to lease real state contracts, joint ventures and commercial agreements, among others. Also with full experience interacting with governmental affairs including Contracts /Public and Private Agreements, Developed structure and administration of public trusts, Public International and National tenders regarding and execution of Procurement (Public tenders).
In addition I am active member of Ethics Committee which is in charge to manage and enforce all the better practices within all the company.
How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
Often the most significant change from a legal perspective comes from legislative changes. In these scenarios, the most important thing is to understand how this would affect the organisation and implement effective communication with the top management of the organisation to understand the orgin and actions the be implemented. This provides a more strategic solution and brings them as part of the solution.
What are the main cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?
Challenging mining law reform in front of the federal courts to protect the investors, owners and company interest, managing to obtain an unconstitutional ruling of the Enviromental Law of Zacatecas State (Mexico).
How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?
First, the identify the legal expertise needed, and from that to pririotise the current in-house lawyers (in case of promotion) regardless of their sex or entity. Notwithstanding, always is important to manage a equilibrate area with different backgrounds and gender
How do you manage and motivate your legal team to ensure high performance and professional growth?
Include them in the decisions to be made. When you fully involve the team in the actions to be taken, they (naturally) got more engaged with the plan, and therefore more motivated. Also is important to provide them with clear and specific goals to be achieve.