Emilia Mesquita – Banco Itau Paraguay

Small wonder that Emilia Mesquita’s staff has ballooned from five to 18 since she assumed responsibility for legal and regulatory compliance at Banco Itau’s Paraguayan operations in July 2019.

Emilia Mesquita | Banco Itau Paraguay | Head Legal & Compliance, LATAM Legal Coordinator

Since then, Banco Itau has grown from a retail bank into a conglomerate with entities for corporate and investment banking, insurance, brokerage, asset management and fin-tech.

Amidst the new ways, Mesquita’s role has been elevated, though her letterhead is essentially the same. She’ll still oversee legal and compliance functions, only now while directly reporting to Chief Executive Officer José Britez. The change, she says, is significant, with much happening on all fronts and the group’s plans to continue to grow.

“Though my title doesn’t change much, it’s nice how we position the subject as a whole,” the affable Mesquita tells Vanguard from the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion in August. “It recognizes the merit of the whole group, not just mine, and makes a point about how important the legal department must be.”

All for one

Her legal department responds to its expanded role, Mesquita emphasizes. Noting the need for specialization in a company with new divisions, she divides the staffers by subject-matter expertise but still expects all to have a generalist’s knowledge. The weekly meetings she oversees have proven productive, with staffers beckoning to brainstorm and float ideas.

Just days before Mesquita spoke with Vanguard, two of her staffers had implemented a tool to automate what had been manual responses for legal requests. The change is sure to save money and spare the legal staff from being consumed by routine tasks.

“The Paraguayan system is still very paper-based, and through this project, we’ve better registered the inflow of notices and our way of keeping track,” she says. “Our meetings have allowed us to hear how others are doing, maintain open lines of communication, share ideas, and keep our relationships alive.”

The technological upgrades continue as her staff explores more internal possibilities for artificial intelligence. While Mesquita concedes that she’s not the most tech-minded, she says her motivational and inspiring ways bring out the best in those under her wing. Asked to condense her modus operandi, she says it’s about leading the staff in processing questions, addressing the answers and aligning the thought process with Banco Itau’s.

De facto diplomat

The venture will likely allow Mesquita more opportunities to apply the diplomatic skills she once envisioned using on the global front. A 1998 University of Sao Paul law graduate with extra credentials from The University of Freiburg, The Wharton School and Boston University School of Law (where she earned a master’s in 2000), Mesquita initially saw herself in an ambassadorial role but says she came to realize she could accomplish just as much in corporate law. Banco Itau and its Brazilian parent, Itau Unibanco, have been an ideal landing.

After cutting her teeth in private law, she commenced with a 16-year-stretch at Itau Unibanco, ascending to head of legal before moving to Banco Itau Paraguay. Mesquita can be a de facto diplomat for so much international business.

“I do use the skills of a diplomat in building bridges with the various groups I work with in different countries,” she says. “I believe I am a good communicator, making our jobs so much easier.”

She can communicate in six languages. Mesquita is fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and, of course, Portuguese, the mother tongue of her native Brazil. As to how she became so worldly, she credits her late father, a Brazilian electrical engineer, and her mother, who paused her career to raise four children and then returned to school to earn a law degree.

All those children were encouraged to spread their wings, with Mesquita pursuing her studies in Germany, the United States, and Brazil. Paraguay, being across the Brazilian border, has stayed closest to home while her siblings chased their professional dreams in Quebec, Sweden and Texas.

“And we’ve all married in non-Brazilians who took us in different directions,” Mesquita says.

Active with the nonprofit cross-cultural group Children’s International Summer Village, Mesquita met her Ohio-born husband at a Denmark convention. Only she took him in a new direction, he having followed her to Paraguay, where he teaches middle school.

The next generation

The couple is raising a 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son, and the parents are already exploring where the elder child is destined. In July, Mesquita visited Washington, D.C., and can envision her daughter as Georgetown University material. But Mesquita wants them to make the most of their opportunities wherever the children wind up, just as she and her brother and two sisters have done.

“My parents’ philosophy was we had to see the world, be open-minded about different cultures and environments, and experience as much as we could,” she says. “They were always on our side, financed our education and pushed us. We want the same for our children.”

The youngsters seem off to a good start, each a conscientious student and trilingual. But they have some catching up to do with their mother speaking six.

“Learning German took a lot of hard work,” Mesquita says with a good-natured laugh. “I learned Italian from my Italian grandmother … It’s important for all of us to keep that curiosity spirit alive. I love the idea of making an impact. Leaving my mark is very important in anything I do.”