The impact of remote working on women in the workforce

Horacio Bernardes Neto

Horacio Bernardes Neto is the President of the International Bar Association (IBA). His tenure is for the calendar years of 2019 and 2020. Mr Bernardes Neto has been a member of the IBA since 1982. He sits on the IBA Management Board and has held the posts of IBA Vice-President (2017–2018); IBA Secretary-General (2015–2016); and Chair of the IBA Bar Issues Commission (2013–2014). He is a senior partner of Motta Fernandes Advogados (MFA), which is continually recognised as a leading law firm in Brazil.His main areas of expertise are M&A, general corporate law, private equity, antitrust, contracts and arbitration.

Manuel Galicia

Manuel Galicia specializes in domestic and international commercial transactions. His professional practice focuses mainly on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and private equity.

He has wide-ranging experience in operations focusing on credit facilities, private and public securities and debt offerings, co-investment, privatization, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring, among others. He has counselled local, state and federal governments, as well as other government entities, in a variety of commercial transactions. He is a member of the Board of Directors of numerous companies.

He was a legal consultant to the Coordinating Office of Foreign Trade Organizations during the negotiation of NAFTA and the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (FTA EU-MX) and has served as an advisor to national and international organizations.

He has international experience working as a foreign associate at Baker & Botts.

Manuel Galicia has been recognized in national and international publications as one of the leading transactional lawyers in the country. He has been awarded the Order of Merit, Knight Commander’s Cross, from Germany (2007), and the Gold Cross of Merit, Knight Commander First Class, for Services Rendered by Austria (2011). He has been recognized as a Tier-1 Lawyer and recently as “Eminent Practitioner” in Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions and in Banking and Finance by Chambers & Partners; a Tier-1 Lawyer in Mergers and Acquisitions and in Banking and Finance by IFLR 1000; and a Tier-1 Lawyer in Corporate Law, Banking and Finance, and Mergers and Acquisitions by The Legal 500.

He has a Master’s degree in Comparative and International Law from Southern Methodist University School of Law (Dallas, Texas, United States) and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

He is the founding partner of Galicia.

Luis Carlos Rodrigo

Luis Carlos Rodrigo Prado is managing partner of Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Abogados in Peru and leads the firm’s Natural Resources practice groups. He specializes in mining, project financing and environmental matters.

He counsels mining and natural resources companies on regulatory matters, project financing and M&A, based on his comprehensive understanding of corporate, mining and tax law. He has significant experience in structuring and designing strategies for acquiring and merging companies, and is expert negotiating investment and stability agreements, joint venture agreements and other types of agreements related to the exploration and exploitation of natural resources.

He is member of the board of major mining and insurance companies and member of the Advisory Committee at the Canada Peru Chamber of Commerce where he was president (2007-2012), deputy chair (2000 to 2007) and member of the board (1997-2012). In 2011 he was granted the Gold Medallion by the Governor General of Canada. He currently chairs the Latin American Regional Forum of the International Bar Association.

Erika Villareal

Is a native of Panama City, Republic of Panama. Erika is a Partner of Anzola Robles & Associates, with a primary practice focused on Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Finance Law, Energy Law and Mergers and Acquisitions. She received her Law and Political Science Degree (JD equivalent) Magna Cum Laude and ranked on the top three of the class of 2003 from University of Panama, School of Law, as an IFARHU scholarship recipient for academic excellence. Was admitted to the practice of law in Panama upon graduation in 2003, she continued her graduate level studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain where she awarded a scholarship from the Complutense Foundation of Madrid and completed a post graduated course in International Business Law. In 2005 Erika obtained a Fulbright Scholarship and continued her graduate level studies at Duke University Law School, where she earned a Masters in Laws. As a Fulbright Scholar Erika also completed studies of Introduction to U.S. Law, at Tulane University, Law School in 2005.

Erika has devoted some of her time to teaching. She was an assistant instructor of the Conflicts of Laws course at the Law School of the University of Panama for the 2003-2004 academic years.

Erika is a member of the Association of Fulbright Scholars of Panama since the year 2006 and the International Bar Association (IBA).

Erika is fluent in Spanish and English.

Mia Perdomo

Mia Perdomo is an entrepreneur, activist and feminist. Co-founder of Aequales, a company that provides tools for organizations to close their gender gaps through measurement, consultancy and technology. She is the co-creator of Par Ranking, the largest corporate Gender Equality Ranking in Latin America and the community of companies that advocate for gender equity. Mia is a psychologist from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and a Master's graduate in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is a Global Competitive Leadership Program Fellow at Georgetown University and is currently undertaking the ECLA program at Columbia University's Business School. One of the 100 most successful managers of 2017 according to the Gerente Magazine. One of the 100 transforming women of Colombia according to La Silla Vacía. One of the 101 people that are changing the world of work according to the BBC. One of the most creative people in business in 2020 according to Fast Company.

Alejandra Castro

Alejandra is the Head of Legal, Patents and Compliance at Bayer PACA (Andean Region, Central America & Caribbean).

Before her current position, she was the Head of Legal, Patents and Compliance at Bayer in Central America and the Caribbean. She is also Patent country specialist leading the North Latam region for Bayer Patent organization since 2016. Before joining Bayer, she was Partner at a regional Law firm, where she was the Head of the Intellectual Property and Biotechnology Law Department. Prior to joining the law firm, Alejandra was Pfizer´s Legal and Corporate Affairs Director for Central America and the Caribbean. She is the co-founder of the Costa Rican Information Technology Association and the founder of the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia) Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property Program, where she served as faculty director for 4 years. Alejandra also acted as Head of the ALFA Project for the Costa Rican National Insurance Institute, where she supervised country-wide preparations to open the Costa Rican insurance market to competition after 80 years of monopoly. She was Vice-president of the Costa Rican Bar Association, and Vice President of the National Chamber of Technology (CAMTIC).

In 2011, the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization (WIPO) named her as its advisor responsible for designing the Costa Rican National strategy on intellectual property rights. In 2012, she was also designated by WIPO to draft the National Strategy on Intellectual Property for Trinidad & Tobago.

In 2013, she was awarded the 40 Minors of 40 Award, by the newspaper El Financiero, as a distinction to her career in Law. In 2015 she was named by the Central American Magazine Strategy & Business as one of the most outstanding young women attorneys in the region. In 2017 Vanguard Law recognized her as one of the most important woman in law leaders, and in 2018, she was shortlisted for the LACCA Compliance award with 5 more General Counsels from Latam. She was awarded as leading in-house lawyer at Legal500 for the last 5 years. This recognition was also granted for her legal team in Bayer in the last 4 years. In 2019 her department was awarded by the Legal Alliance Summit with the Silver award as Best Central American Legal Department during the Ceremony of Leaders League in New York.

She is currently a law professor at the main Universities in Costa Rica.