Chief legal officer | Grupo Catalana Occidente
Joaquin Guallar
Chief legal officer | Grupo Catalana Occidente
Joaquín is currently a member of the Management Board of GCO (Grupo Catalana Occidente, S.A.), as well as Secretary Non-Director of the Board of Directors of Grupo Catalana Occidente, S.A. Before joining GCO in 2013, he was a Senior Associate at Cuatrecasas, the Spanish law firm he had joined in 2001. Between 2008 and 2009, Joaquín was seconded to Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in New York as a foreign associate lawyer.
He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona and a Law degree from Abat Oliba CEU (University of Barcelona). Joaquín also completed a Master’s degree in International Business Law at ESADE and a Certificate of Research Sufficiency in International Studies from the University of Barcelona. Furthermore, he has undertaken the General Manager Program (PDG) at IESE Business School in Barcelona. Among the awards he has received are the Iberian Lawyer 40under40 outstanding achievement (2015) and the “Insignis Alumni” at the Aptissimi awards from Esade Alumni (2023).
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?
As the head of the legal department of a Group whose main corporate goal is to provide certainty to its clients in times of crises and instability through its wide range of insurance products, and after several years of constant crises (COVID, climate events, wars, and political uncertainties), I have come to the conclusion that the best strategy to tackle this issue is to embrace these turmoils and make them part of the daily business — just another factor to consider in our strategic decisions, whether they are legal, commercial, reputational, or otherwise.
What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?
On the one hand, we have recently been involved in the acquisition of Grupo Memora, making us the leading funerary services group in Spain and Portugal, as well as overseeing its subsequent corporate integration within Grupo Catalana Occidente (GCO). Additionally, over the course of two years, we successfully completed the corporate merger of GCO’s five life and non-life insurance carriers, transitioning from a multi-brand strategy to a single, more efficient organisation.
What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Spain over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?
The main legal challenge businesses will face in the short term, particularly in a regulated sector such as insurance and banking, is hyperregulation and the ability to integrate digitalization and AI into day-to-day operations. On the one hand, companies need to keep up with overwhelming and constraining legislation, especially regarding data protection and AI. On the other hand, they must maintain their competitiveness against international competitors in more flexible jurisdictions. In this context, our approach as a legal department is to be self-aware, ensuring that we are seen by the organization as the best partner and facilitator for business projects. We aim to highlight solutions rather than problems and offer creative and efficient legal alternatives to help achieve business goals while ensuring compliance with the different regulations involved.
