Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

Since August 2010 to date, I have been a lawyer for Sura Asset Management-Mexico — formerly ING México — in which, from

July 2017, I have served as legal deputy director of financial affairs, a position through which I have, with the aid of an excellent team, provided legal support for the various entities of Sura Asset Management México in commercial and stock-market matters as well as corporate, innovation, new business models and corporate governance. In this niche I have participated in various relevant projects such as the acquisition by Sura of the business entities of ING Latin-American in 2011, the corporate restructuring of Sura Asset Management México in 2012-2014 that resulted in, among other legal accomplishments, a transnational fusion and nationalisation of a company; the acquisition of a life insurance company in 2014; the Sura’s implementation of the financial reforms of 2014, the performance of warranty agreements for OTC products in 2015-2018; the creation of the Sura Asset Management Mexico’s financial services market place known as qiip in 2018; the international issuance by Sura Asset Management of $350 million worth of uninsured bonds in New York in 2018; the annual acceleration programmes of Sura Asset Management México carried out since 2018; the constitution and start-up of a Mexican registered investment advisor; the transformation of Sura’s pension funds into target date funds according to the reforms of 2019; the digital transformation and expansion of the Sura Asset management Mexico’s retail investment business line product offering and, more recently, the implementation of the very ambitious Afore Sura’s investment programme in international private equity.

Additionally, I have contributed to the legal and corporate governance executive director of Sura Asset Management México with strategies for issues, including those matters related to corporate governance and best practices in investment matters, the prevention of money laundering, the protection of personal data, and fraud prevention.

Finally, I have also served as deputy secretary of the board of directors for the entities of Sura Asset Management México.

In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

Confidence. Confidence in yourself and your team. Once you have made a conscious selection of your team based fundamentally on its skills and capabilities, you must trust everyone in it and focus on strategic matters. What the company and the team need from you is direction. You must concentrate on boosting, guiding and redirecting, keeping the company’s strategy in mind.

What is the biggest risk to your industry, and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

I think it is not a risk exclusive to our industry, but of all the industries: velocity. Nowadays, all trends change at a very incredible speed. People expect much better services for everything, everywhere and all the time. Companies must be conscious of the real needs of their clients at every moment, promoting continuous innovation. In this sense, professionals who support the business line must be mindful of that situation and prepared to give the business the support needed. I think that lawyers need to be familiarised with new concepts and methodologies. I have tried to train myself and my team in legal tech matters and agile methods to keep us up to date with trends and regulations. Thanks to that, we have managed to provide alternative and practical solutions to the challenges posed by the business in implementing the various initiatives and projects that point to the company’s strategy.