About

Ricardo has been in his current role since June 2011 as Chief Legal Officer for Nestlé, the second largest company in Switzerland. Operating in the fast-moving food & beverage industry, Ricardo navigates his team through a tide of new regulation and related enforcement activities that are truly global in their nature. Fundamental changes from a legal and regulatory perspective are mainly linked with societal issues like non-communicable diseases and obesity, while compliance issues to do with competition law, privacy and human rights all rear their heads. Ricardo states that the legal team at Nestlé has become a key player in efforts to help the company to grow in a ‘sustainable and compliant manner’, having ‘adapted our function accordingly, hiring food law experts, creating advocacy committees and supporting our businesses and senior management’. In doing so, he has managed to ‘expand our portfolio and number of clients by around 50%’, while keeping the company’s legal spend at the same level through efficiency and intelligent resourcing. However, Ricardo’s efforts are not solely focussed on the needs of Nestlé. Many of his team are members of major in-house associations and have partnered with key universities such as Harvard Law School by joining their advisory boards. Ricardo has strong ethical considerations, concentrating on ‘promoting gender balance and diversity with a keen focus in helping young lawyers to start their careers’. This has extended to Nestlé partnering with universities, law firms and other companies to achieve their goals.