About

Described by a nominator as ‘a fantastic lawyer’ and ‘technically second to none’, in 2018 Alejandro Navarro Paustian joined Raízen Trading, the international trading arm of Raízen Group, a joint venture between Shell and Cosan. Based in Switzerland, he works closely with the legal team in Brazil but is responsible for the legal advice of all trading activities outside of the country. Paustian has 17 years of professional experience, having held the positions of head of legal, general counsel, partner and sole counsel for major listed firms as well as small investment managers in London, Dublin and Geneva. His first in-house role was as legal counsel at Sempra Energy Europe in London, reporting directly to the European general counsel, and for corporate matters to the headquarters in San Diego, as well as advising on several types of energy transactions worldwide. He was then approached by Bear Stearns International and joined as vice president for the legal department, later to be promoted to assistant director, mainly focused on derivatives, securitisations and structured bonds with German and Spanish speaking jurisdictions. After a couple of years he moved to Dublin to work as manager at Allied Irish Banks, advising on similar matters. A year later he was approached by ex-colleagues from Sempra to help them negotiate an investment management agreement with a New York fund. After successfully negotiating and obtaining US$100m in start-up capital he was offered a position as general counsel, compliance officer and partner of Primergy Capital Partners, a FCA authorised investment manager. After this he joined Gunvor International, where he single handedly he created the legal department, at first covering non-oil product and later oil products. During his time there, turnover increased from US$66bn to over US$100bn. Prior to joining Raízen Trading he worked at Cadoil Trading, a refined products company, where he served as general counsel and compliance officer.