Economic Competition in Mexico

	Miguel Flores Bernés Shareholder Greenberg Traurig Miguel Flores Bernés focuses his practice on antitrust and competition issues affecting clients in various industries, including government merger review, investigations of alleged anticompetitive conduct, litigation and counseling. He regularly represents clients before the two Mexican competition authorities: Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica and Instituto Federal de las Telecomunicaciones, and designed and implemented antitrust/competition compliance programs for clients in Mexico. Prior to joining the firm, Miguel was a partner dedicated to antitrust and competition matters in RRH Consultores, S.C. and a Commissioner in the Federal Competition Commission. As a Commissioner, he was involved with a variety of issues such as the application of antitrust/competition law to airlines, energy and telecommunications industries, as well as in the development of the Mexican leniency program and criminal enforcement of antitrust/competition matters. Before he joined the Federal Competition Commission, he was legal advisor to the Office of the President of Mexico and an economic regulation expert in the Mexican Ministry of Economy.

	Víctor Manuel Frías Garcés Shareholder Greenberg Traurig Víctor Manuel Frías Garcés focuses his practice on business and competition law, including mergers and acquisitions and their economic and competitive issues. He has been recognized as one of the key competition and antitrust lawyers in Mexico by Chambers Latin America. Víctor has represented clients in numerous investigations that were carried out by the Competition Commission in Mexico in the pharmaceutical, cement, compressors, ODDs, LCDs, CRTs, and travelling services markets. Víctor has also been recognized by Who’s Who Legal as one of the leading lawyers in information technology. He represents clients in various industries, including computer software, hardware, information services, pharmaceuticals, product manufacturing, real estate developers and retailing. Prior to joining the firm, Víctor was managing partner at Casares Castelazo Frías y Zárate, S.C. until its recent incorporation of the corporate team into Greenberg Traurig.

	Enrique González Latin American Legal Director Uber Enrique Gonzalez has been working in Uber since 2015 as the Legal Director for Latin America covering 14 countries and 115 cities across the region, he focuses his practice on Litigation, Regulatory and Corporate matters; before joining Uber he was Legal Director at Televisa Publishing and also served as Senior counsel for Cargill from 2004 to 2013. He was recognized by the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association as General Counsel of the year in 2016. Enrique holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications and Technology Law from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain and a Law degree from Marist University in Mexico City.

	Octavio Gutierrez-Engelmann General Director of Regulated Markets Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) Octavio is the Director General of Regulated Markets at COFECE. Currently his role consist of implementing new procedures in COFECE related to barriers to competition and essential facilities. Octavio has held several positions in the banking sector and the Mexican Government, among others, Under Director of Economic Affairs in COFECE, VP Latam Strategist and Principal Economist in BBVA Bancomer, and Director of Public Investment in the Mexican Ministry of Treasure. He has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a Master in Economics form The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA).

	Brenda Hernández Ramírez Commissioner Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) Brenda joined the Federal Economic Competition Commission (acronym in Spanish: COFECE) in 2016 to act as Commissioner. She has worked at the Mexican Competititon authority since 2003. She has worked in a number of public administration posts, among them as Legal Director in the Directorate General for Legal Affairs. Afterwards she served as Deputy Director General for the Commissioners Rodrigo Morales Elcoro and Francisco Javier Nuñez Melgoza. Between 2014 and 2016, she acted as General Director at the Coordination Bureau at Investigative Authority, and prior to this role she took up a position at the Federal Telecommunications Institute as Deputy Director General of Proceedings in the Economic Competition Unit. She has acquired extensive expertise in competition matters representing the Competition Commision in legal disputes on competition cases and as legal advisor in the Investigative Authority. She received her Master's degree in International Law from the University of Bolona, Italy and holds serveral diplomas in matters of economic competition and amparo trials. She has been profesor of antitrust law courses at ITAM, IBERO and CIDE.

	Chris Kay Seminars Manager Chambers and Partners Chris Kay is a UK qualified solicitor and the Seminars Manager at Chambers and Partners. Chris was a practising solicitor before moving to Chambers and Partners. As part of his role he works with general counsel, barristers and law firm partners around the world to organise and moderate legal seminars.

	Carlos Mena-Labarthe Chief Prosecutor Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) Carlos was appointed Chief Prosecutor (Autoridad Investigadora) at the Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) in October 2014 for a four year term. He has worked at the Mexican competition authority since 2007. He was the head of the Planning, Institutional Relations and International Affairs Unit where he coordinated the efforts to create the first Strategic Plan and the first Annual Plan of the agency, and represented the Commission before Congress for the discussions of a new law in 2014. From 2008 to September 2013, he was the Director General of the Cartel Investigations Division where he also served as director of cartels and interstate commerce from 2007 to 2008. Mr. Mena has extensive experience in the fields of regulation and competition law. Prior to joining the Mexican competition authority he worked for national and international law firms in their competition law practice. He has been an international Fellow of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America. He has written for numerous publications and he is the editor and co-author of six books on various topics including competition law, regulation and public policy. Mr. Mena holds a Master’s degree in Business Law with honors from the Attorney Bar Association of Madrid, Spain; a Master’s Degree in Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science with the distinction for the best overall performance; and a degree with first-class honors in Law from ITAM University in Mexico City.

	Ignacio Navarro Commissioner Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) Dr. Navarro is an economist with extensive experience in the design and implementation of government programs and business consulting. He was appointed as Commissioner of the Federal Economic Competition Commission in 2013 for a 7-year period. He has held several positions in the Mexican Government, among others, Under-Secretary for Industry and Trade at the Mexican Ministry of Economy, Director of Economic and Social Benefits and Treasurer at the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) and Deputy Secretary for Mining in the Ministry of the Economy. In the private sector, Dr. Navarro has been CFO of Afore XXI Banorte and Partner at Sorem, a consultancy company. Dr. Navarro has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Superior Studies (ITESM) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.

	Alberto Paez General Counsel Heineken de México Alberto Páez Lobeira focuses his practice on Legal Strategy and Corporate Law, including Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities, Financing, Risk Management, and Intellectual Property. He has experience in the private sector; he has worked in FEMSA, mainly in international transactional matters; in COTEMAR as Legal Manager, working with energy legal issues; and, in Heineken México as General Counsel. Alberto also has international experience as an International Lawyer in Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton LLP, where he achieved several strategic alliances between different companies. Alberto received his Law Degree from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and a Law Master degree from Duke University, School of Law.

	Alejandra Palacios Commissioner & Chair Federal Economic Competition Commission of Mexico (COFECE) Alejandra Palacios Prieto, Commissioner and Chair of Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica; acronym in Spanish: COFECE), the Mexican antitrust agency, holds a Bachelors degree in Economics as well as an MBA from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She completed a second Masters degree in Public Policy at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE). Before her current role at COFECE, Palacios Prieto worked as Competitiveness and Regulatory Project Director at the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad: acronym in Spanish: IMCO), where she oversaw research projects focused on economic regulation, telecom, public procurement and other related issues. She also served as a consultant to Mexico’s former Federal Telecommunications Commission as well as to the Nation’s Social Security Institute, undertaking investigation -and evaluation- projects related to cooperation agreements between these institutions and the OECD. She is the first woman to head a Mexican antitrust authority. Since June 2016, she is Vice-President of the International Competition Network (ICN), and as of 2017, Member of the Bureau of the Competition Committee of the OECD . In 2014, Forbes magazine named Palacios Prieto one of “Mexico’s Most Powerful Women” and two years before, Expansión magazine included her among the distinguished professional profiles that make up its “30 Promises in their 30s” list. She is a member of the Mexico chapter of the International Women’s Forum. Her academic work includes serving as professor as well as academic coordinator for the ITAM Economics faculty.