Features

Paola Serna L. – OMRON

A passionate eye on the future

“Everything I do, I do with passion,” says Paola Serna L. from Mexico City.

She credits that can-do spirit with enabling her personal and professional growth despite an auto-immune condition that’s been brought under control. It helps, she tells Vanguard, to be part of a company that practices what it preaches about in its “Shaping the Future 2030” goal.

Paola Serna L. | Legal and Compliance Director, Latin America | OMRON

Paola Serna L. | Legal and Compliance Director, Latin America | OMRON

That corporate goal too would seem to necessitate passion, OMRON having immersed in projects to spur industrial automation, healthcare and sustainability. The Japanese-owned company’s engineers, scientists and inventors brainstorm solutions for carbon neutrality, digital transformation, smart and electronic vehicles, better communication and increased life expectancy. Serna oversees the less tangible but equally important details for its Latin American division.

“Legal and compliance does touch everything,” she says.

‘Optimized society’

A member of OMRON’s Americas legal team since November 2015 and promoted this past April to legal and compliance director, Serna says the goal of the company is bettering society through automation and innovation.

To help with that mission, Serna has helped introduce technology to ease contract, litigation and personnel management. Even before COVID-19 had OMRON’s executives often working remotely, Serna says electronic signatures were business as usual. She also collaborated with the infotech department in ensuring cybersecurity and data privacy as the volume of contracting has expanded.

OMRON active in most of Central and South America, Serna helps it adhere to the rules and regulations of multiple jurisdictions. Argentina being among the locales where OMRON is aggressively expanding, Serna relies on Wiener Soto Caparros, a Buenos Aires law firm noted for expertise in foreign investment and overall business matters. Its roster includes Argentine, Brazilian, Mexican and U.S. lawyers.

Paola Serna L. | Legal and Compliance Director, Latin America | OMRON

“Normally law firms just provide a legal framework, but WSC understands the challenges of an expanding business,” she says. “They’re my right hand and eye in Argentina. As in-house counsel I require the support of law firms because we’re specialized in everything but not experts in all those topics. That’s where I need a good partner like WSC and other strong Mexican law firms like Baker Tilly and Deforest Abogados.”

While she leads compliance and ethics, Serna participates in OMRON’s DEI initiatives—diversity, inclusion, equity—and takes pride in being a role model for other young women.

“In 2015 I was the first member of legal department in Mexico, and in 2022 I became the first woman to have a director position in Mexico,” she says. “Since then, most of the workforce has become female. We’ve come a long way but still have a lot of work to do.”

As to where Serna gets her passion, it might be her way of coping with some personal challenges. She lost her father at 15 and became mother to her siblings, as her mother provided economic support for the family. She scraped to pay for her education, some of it covered by scholarship. Then there was the autoimmune disability that had her hospitalized for lengthy periods during her mid-20s, just as her career was taking off.

Thus, she’s even more motivated to have a role in a company that is launching the next level in automation and digital health.

Parents knew best

There was a time when Serna might have been inclined to aid healthcare through another means—her childhood aspiration was to be a neurosurgeon. Law won out, however, with much encouragement from her parents, an accountant and an economist.

“My father told me, ‘be a tax attorney. You’re so good at math and you’ll do so well,’” she recalls.

She earned her law degree from ITAM (Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico) in 2003 and spent many years advising financial companies, being in-house counsel and assembling legal and compliance departments. Excellent training, Serna says, but she wasn’t quite satisfied until OMRON offered her the opportunity to build its legal department and dive into such an ambitious mission.

Paola Serna L. | Legal and Compliance Director, Latin America | OMRON

“It got me out of my comfort zone,” she says. “A new industry meant a great challenge.”

Those first few years mostly had her handling regional issues, but in 2018 Europe was added to her responsibilities. She spent a couple months in the Netherlands and upon returning to Mexico was entrusted with Brazil and then regional compliance.

“I’ve developed a global legal and risk-mentoring program that’s interconnected among the regions,” she says. “I’ve learned more about different cultures, improved my soft skills and exchanged best practices.”

Always looking to expand her skillset, she’s enrolled in a master’s program in compliance at the University of Nebrija. Personal life is also fulfilling with Serna raising her 11-year-old stepdaughter Katia with her husband Oscar. The family also has four rescue dogs. A rigorous exercise regimen keeps her health stable, and her cultural pursuits include salsa and jazz.

“I don’t want to limit myself,” Serna says. “The past seven years has been a wonderful journey with lots of challenges and lessons learned and teamwork. We’re all working toward 2030.”

View this feature in the Vanguard Fall II 2022 Edition here.

Published on: September 27, 2022

regions:

categories: ,

Showcase your feature on your website with a custom “As Featured in Vanguard” badge that links directly to your article!

Copy and paste this script into your page coding (ideally right before the closing tag) where you want to display our review banner.

Testimonials

The piece highlighting my company, Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., came out fabulous. Our company is in the new and used car sales and service industry. Everyone was great to work with and extremely professional. They produced a high-quality product and have provided expert assistance and guidance post-production of the article.
– Wade Poulson, General Counsel, Bob Baker Enterprises Inc.
As promised in advance, my feature in Vanguard has increased my visibility within the profession and prompted more than a few people I have not communicated with recently to reconnect. One of the Italian law firms I have used in the past is now in the process of interviewing me for an article on their website and tweeting out the feature story. Activity and the number of people connecting with me on LinkedIn has soared, which is great. The Vanguard writers and editorial staff were great to work with—highly professional and made the effort to make the experience both fun and rewarding (they were also respectful of the time pressures and demands all lawyers face). I was very pleased with the experience and the final outcome. Needless to say, I have been very pleased. All in all working with Vanguard has been a very positive experience which generated good publicity for both Shawcor and myself. My sincere thanks.
– Tim Hutzul, General Counsel, ShawCor Ltd.
I was honored to be the subject of an article. I enjoy reading Vanguard articles and seeing how other attorneys got to their positions and see their jobs. It's also interesting to see how different law firms partner with the subjects of the articles.
– Henry Marquard, in-house counsel, Stanley Consultants Inc.
It was a great honor to be featured in Vanguard Law. Working with every member of the team, from the initial interview with Erin Clark, through production with Victor Martins, writing the article with Taryn Plumb and creating the final content with Dave Gushee, was a true pleasure. Everyone was very professional, enthusiastic and supportive, and their creative approach and positive attitude clearly came through in the final product.
– Kevin C. Rakowski, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance with Radian Group Inc.

LATEST EDITION

Summer IV 2023

READ NOW

GET VANGUARD IN YOUR INBOX.

  • * We’ll never share your email or info with anyone.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.