About

The Honeywell legal team is constantly engaged with business leaders to ensure alignment with the company’s strategic plan in Mexico and across the wider region. During the past year, it has been responsible for closing transactions with regional Honeywell customers exceeding a total of $300m in Latin America. Honeywell’s presence in high-growth regions such as Latin America has been a key pillar of its strategy over the last decade and the regional legal team succeeds in meeting the demands and challenges of such fast-growing economies. The size of the department has doubled and established a centre of excellence in Monterrey for contract support and other legal services to various Honeywell business groups worldwide. Despite being recently formed, the Latin American legal team is fully engaged in implementing the company’s motto “right and fast” and has developed innovative solutions connecting the company in an efficient and productive manner. The intricate web of Honeywell’s business groups requires the Latin American legal department to act efficiently as a strategic partner and a creative risk manager across the region. The team has managed to accomplish complex reorganisations across the region to achieve a lean and cost effective legal entity structure including more than 35 subsidiaries. During the second half of 2015, the team succeeded in integrating the Latin American portion of the Elster acquisition into Honeywell’s environment of internal policies, process initiatives, and culture. The $5.1bn acquisition from Melrose Industries closed in December 2015. Amongst some of their biggest achievements, and in an effort to reduce outside counsel legal spend, the team implemented e-Auction initiatives which resulted in savings of more than 50% when compared to the previous years. Vice president and general counsel for Latin America, Valeria Chapa has been described by one individual as, ‘one of the brightest lawyers I know; she is the meaning of a multifaceted and hard-working lawyer. Even in her extremely busy working life she found the time to co-found the Abogadas MX group, which is a success in Mexico’. On her team’s work ethic Chapa says, ‘the word “growth” is the ethos of every single project in which the Latin America legal team works’. The team now consists of a number of exceptional individuals: ‘We have doubled the size of the department and established a centre of excellence in Monterrey for contract support and other legal services to various Honeywell business groups worldwide’, says Chapa. Some of the team’s leading members include Daniela Tijerina, senior legal affairs manager Latin America, who was the winner of the 2016 LACCA Legal Counsel of the Year Award. Tijerina led the introduction of the first IT tool as well as other standardization processes within the legal department. She additionally led the first de-regulation electricity deal in Mexico bringing net annual savings of $1.5m. Another notable figure is Elizabeth Soto, integrity and compliance director Latin America. Soto spent her first months coordinating 3,000 hours of compliance training directed to over 2,000 employees in six different Latin American countries, focusing on anti-corruption and business code of conduct. Diego Martinotti, general counsel South America, during his first months with Honeywell, focused on the corporate integration of the Elster acquisition in Perú, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. He further supported the company’s efforts to expand its presence to other South American countries.