DLA Piper Latin America Panorama 2023

On 26 January we held the DLA Piper Latin America Panorama 2023 event in Madrid, which brought together more than 150 executives and experts from around the world to discuss investment, technology, infrastructure, energy and sustainability. The event has started a conversation in the region among the business and legal world.

The day began with a welcome from Jesús Zapata (Country Managing Partner for Spain, DLA Piper), who highlighted the strong global presence of the firm, including in Latin America where we have 450 lawyers.

Next, Francisco J. Cerezo (Partner & Chair, US-Latin America Practice, DLA Piper) and Ambassador P. Michael McKinley (Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group) addressed the current political and economic situation in Latin America, focusing on its challenges and opportunities in 2023.

In the first panel, moderated by María Pereira (Partner, DLA Piper, London), the trends and opportunities in energy and infrastructure across Latin America were discussed by Antonio Bandrés (Head of International Financing and European Union, ICO), Cayetana Lado Castro-Rial (Head of Legal, ICO), Nicolás Corral (Investment Director – Infrastructure Funds, Bestinver) and Ana Velón Navarro (Head of Legal, Gransolar Group).

Juan Ignacio Vergara (Head of Legal, Telefónica), Carlos Ulecia (General Counsel | Chief Legal Officer, NH Hotel Group) and Olga Polo Gómez (General Counsel, Forus - JP Morgan entity) talked in the second panel about the role of US law in investments in Latin America, moderated by Francisco J. Cerezo (Partner & Chair, US-Latin America Practice, DLA Piper) and Margarita Oliva (Partner, DLA Piper, New York).

The third panel, dedicated to technology and innovation as a driver of development, was moderated by Felipe Quintero (Partner, DLA Piper, Colombia) and Matías Zegers (Managing Partner, DLA Piper, Chile) and featured Martin Umaran (Co-Founder and Chairman EMEA, Globant), Oskar Miel (Managing Partner, Rakuten Capital) and Álvaro Fresnillo Virséda (VP of Operations, Fever). This panel also explored the opportunity that young talent represents in the Latin America region.

To end the event, the Secretary of State for Economic and Corporate Support Affairs from the Spanish Ministry of Economic and Digital Transformation Affairs, Gonzalo García Andrés, highlighted the importance of ESG criteria in investment, while Nuno Azevedo Neves (Country Managing Partner for Portugal, DLA Piper) was in charge of the closing, underlining the strength of the Iberian structure as a bridge between both sides of the Atlantic.

Thank you to those who attended. We look forward to welcoming delegates back in 2024.