Legal compliance director jurídico

HomeServe Spain is the Spanish subsidiary of HomeServe Plc, a publicly traded British company. With £3 billion in capital and over 4,000 employees worldwide, it is the leading provider in home assistance and repair.

As Director of Legal and Compliance and member of the Executive Committee of the company I have ensured that all HomeServe activities in Spain are compliant with applicable regulations and contracts, while supporting the growth and expansion initiatives of the business.

Avant Tarjeta is a consumer lending institution specializing in collection, card, loan and insurance products ($1B in assets managed). Avant Tarjeta was created to manage the assets of Bank of America’s card and loan business upon its sale to Apollo Global Management in 2012. (450 employees transitioned into this new company in Spain at that time.)

I supervised a team of 17, including the heads of Compliance and Op Risk, SCM, and of Complaint Handling. I oversaw all legal risk related activities, managed the board activities, and ensured that the CEO and management were apprised of main issues. I also served as a Management Committee member, Board of Directors member, and Secretary to the Board. Among my achievements there, I …

--Set up the Board of Directors’ management structure for the company, coordinating as Board Secretary. I drafted all board related documents, agendas, minutes, certificates, and reports.
--Oversaw the purchase of a $500M Citibank loan portfolio. I was a key driver in negotiating purchase agreement to ensure smooth transition and worked through all contract and regulatory issues.
--Developed and managed a relationship with key regulators in Spain and Ireland, including Bank of Spain audit of Avant Tarjeta as well as Data Protection (privacy) issues. No fines resulted from multiple audits by regulators.
--Saved $1.5M by renegotiating contracts with key vendors during cost reduction project in 2012-13.

This was a branch of a UK chartered bank (MBNA Europe Bank, today MBNA Limited), one of the largest issuers of credit cards in the UK, and an affiliate of MBNA America Bank, at the time the largest affinity card issuer in the USA.

I was part of the startup team sent by MBNA American Bank in the US to launch the business in Spain. I set up and managed legal, compliance and op risk functions; developed and managed relationships with regulators (Bank of Spain, Insurance Regulator, and Data Protection Agency). I also drafted and negotiated all contracts with vendors, customers, affinity and co-branding partners. I advised business areas, especially sales and marketing. Bank of America acquired MBNA in 2005.

Additionally, I reviewed all ads, managed real estate legal aspects, and ensured compliance. I shepherded the growth of the department to 8, including a Compliance and Op Risk manager, and two legal assistants. I reported to the CEO and to Legal Head, MBNA in the UK. While there, I …

--Negotiated, drafted and signed 150+ affinity and co-branding agreements between 2002 and 2010 with companies in the sectors of insurance, sports, professional associations.
--Drafted, developed and continually improved contract templates for all key relationships of the business.
--Successfully managed in 2004 the $32M purchase of MBNA’s office building outside of Madrid.
--Maintained a near perfect record during audits by Bank of Spain and Data Protection Agency: only 1 regulatory fine for a company that mailed millions of direct mail offers to potential and actual customers.
--Was a key driver in reaching business financial breakeven point in 2007.
--Successfully managed legal and compliance work to enable possible launch of Italy credit card business
--Prepared for the divesture of MBNA in 2010-12 by terminating or negotiating closure of all remaining affinity contracts and unilateral closure of all higher risk customer accounts.

t the time, MBNA America Bank, N.A., was one of the largest credit card issuers in the US and in the world, with thousands of affinity and cobranding partnerships in all sectors. It was a pioneer entity in affinity marketing and other sales channels such as event marketing, and leading company in customer service.
Achievements included:

--I was a key player in successfully launching a credit card for the Hispanic US market segment. I re-designed, reviewed and approved all bank advertisements in Spanish, and set legal and language standards for all communication to Spanish-speaking customers
--I was also instrumental in identifying new geographical markets in Europe and South Pacific. I was selected and eventually led a team to conduct a market viability study for a credit card business in Spain in 1997, 1999 and 2001, which led to MBNA’s decision to enter the Spain market with a full launch in 2002.
--I was a key player in developing a relationship with Banco Popular Espanol, a Spanish bank interested in doing a joint venture in the Spain market. I was part of subsequent negotiations in 2001 and 2002 until project was dropped.
--I recommended initiatives related to the selection of affinity groups to approach in Spain and the need to have early contacts with key regulators, such as the Data Protection Agency, to validate our proposed model of handling personal data for our affinity partner.

Special program designed for foreign law graduates to meet requirements and sit for the Bar Examination in Pennsylvania.  32 credits in key JD courses in Widener Law School

Successfully sat and passed Bar Examination in Pennsylvania, and was admitted to practice law.

Masters in International Relations, obtained a Teaching Assistant-ship.  Completed all course work

Inscrito en el Colegio de Abogados de Barcelona, colegiado nº 17.855