Even at 16 years old, while most of his peers were simply trying to survive the trials of teenage-hood, Gustavo Cruz was setting his sights on grander things. Like starting a democratic turnaround in his native Colombia. Well, sort of. During his final year at Gimnasio de los Cerros in Bogotá, the city’s school board—which […]
Features Latin America
Sofia Almeida Montero – QBE Seguros Colonial S.A.
In a way, Sofia Almeida Montero’s career started with a lie—however white and well-intentioned. When she was 18, Almeida arrived at what would be her “alma mater” to take what she thought was a pre-university political science test. After notching one of the highest scores in her class, Almeida soon discovered she’d instead been enrolled […]
Sofia Zuloaga – Aon
The legal department might have run like clockwork when, at just 32, Sofia Zuloaga joined the South American arm of professional services giant Aon, the first woman to manage the legal functions of a subregion that includes Argentina, Chile and Peru. But Zuloaga wanted the department to be about more than just cold efficiency. For […]
Luis Gerardo Ramirez Villela – Müggenburg, Gorches y Peñalosa S.C.
Say a law firm is asked by a client to pursue an intellectual property (IP) case, despite having no IP staff to speak of. In the past, the firm would have to devote extensive crash-course resources to researching the issue internally—or more costly still, use outside counsel. Now, with just a few key words—“intellectual property […]
Jose Pedro Urrutia – Anglo American
When you think of happy, carefree professionals, lawyers might be the last people who come to mind. Spend any time in Jose Pedro Urrutia’s legal department, however, and you’ll quickly realize it is possible for lawyers to love what they do—and where they work. He’s even found a word for his approach, inspired by a […]
Carlos Landazabal Angeli – General Electric
The trademark of a successful corporate lawyer? It’s not just legal and business savvy, answers Carlos Landazabal Angeli, who, since November 2012, has served as General Electric’s legal leader for South America’s Andean region, as well as Central America and the Caribbean. Anticipation is just as important, the soft-spoken general counsel tells Vanguard from his […]
Javier Oroz Coppel – AXA México
“A System of Lessons Learned” is how Javier Oroz Coppel refers to the repository that he and his in-house team are compiling of the judicial rulings and case law that AXA México has dealt with in recent years. Whatever the outcome is in a case, there’s always something to be learned, he reminds from the […]
Alejandro Fernandez Ramirez-Buendia – Cotemar
He joined the legal department of Cotemar, Mexico’s dominant oilfields services provider, at a most challenging time in 2013, when petroleum prices were at a low. The situation wasn’t much better three years later, when Alejandro Fernandez Ramirez-Buendia was promoted to head of legal and general counsel, but much of the reason for his hiring […]
Ricardo Muza —Pfizer Andean Region
It’s a long stretch from his office in Santiago, Chile, to Quito, Ecuador–over 2,350 miles to the north. But Ricardo Muza, legal director of Pfizer’s Andean Region for the past seven years, has a way of finding common ground between the operations of those far-apart locations as well as in the other three countries in […]
Daniel Perez-Cirera – Samsung Mexico
Daniel Perez-Cirera rarely feels nervous anymore. Nervous was going to bed Sunday night ahead of another 80-hour workweek, or flying to Finland for that first meeting at Nokia headquarters. As he walks once again into the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) in Mexico City, Perez-Cirera isn’t gripped with doubts. But he’s aware of the […]
