Features October 2018

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 […]

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 […]

Once completed in early 2019, the 37,000-square-meter Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (ULCR) will be nothing short of commanding. Located in Heredia, just north of the country’s San Jose capital, the sprawling three-story complex will feature stately palm trees and a vertical wall of living grass. But it’s the flags lining the main entrance of […]

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 […]

Diversity has many meanings, and the general counsel for HSBC Brazil Investment Bank and HSBC Group Argentina thinks every single one is important. When Pedro Frade discusses workplace diversity, he’s not just talking euphemistically about employees who are of mixed ethnicity or a certain gender. Likewise, he’s not just using the term in that other, […]

In 1980s Bogota, you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a Renault 4. An economy hatchback first produced in 1966, it remains one of the French automaker’s most iconic models. In Colombia, as in other places, it was everywhere—a symbol of upward mobility in a country where economic stability was rarely a given. So when […]

Homer Simpson once said, “Well, I’m not one for taking new jobs on a whim. But as we say in the snow plow business, ‘I’m your astronaut.’” Homer may be a walking contradiction, and a cartoon to boot, but he hit the nail on the head when it comes to not taking a new job […]

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 […]

Say you’re a general counsel for a major corporation. A modest acquisition—something in the seven-to-nine-figure range—might take up a few months of bandwidth, not including the integration process that can stretch on for years. If the company’s really in growth mode, maybe you handle more than one. And Bayer’s recent $62.5 billion acquisition of agribusiness […]

A job offer like this comes around maybe once in a career—if you’re lucky. Having just turned 30, Daniel Pérez -Umaña understood, both professionally and personally, the weight and stakes of what was in front of him: a job as general counsel for BAC Credomatic, one of Central America’s largest banks. And yet, he hesitated […]