S3E6 | Feather in Her CAP: Gabriela Gutierrez Drives Culture Change in Latin America

Driving cultural change in Latin America, Gabriela Gutierrez of Chile-based extractive company Grupo CAP talks to LRN's Ben DiPietro about her 20-year career in ethics and compliance in Latin America, and the unique challenges that come with working in the region.

PULL QUOTE: “A good way to incentivize cultural change is by bringing all employees and collaborators under one message of why a culture of compliance is important, and that employees feel they and their company will be at an advantage if they reveal an issue than if they do not.” - Gabriela Gutierrez

Gabriela Gutierrez is the chief compliance officer for Grupo CAP, a Chile-based holding company with interests in mining, steel, and extractive resources. She is responsible for the establishment of standards, and the implementation of procedures to ensure the company’s compliance programs are effective and efficient in identifying, preventing, detecting, and correcting noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Gutierrez has extensive executive-level experience at multinational companies in Chile, with more than 20 years in the banking, securities and extractive industries. She has a proven history of building and maintaining excellent working relationships, based on respect and diversity with collaborators of all levels and from different cultural backgrounds.

Prior to joining CAP in June 2019, Gutierrez worked as ethics and compliance manager, Minerals America, for BHP; was the chief compliance officer for China Construction Bank in Chile; and served as head of compliance and operational risk management for Deutsche Bank’s Chile business. She is a CPA from Universidad de Santiago de Chile, has a Master’s Degree in corporate law from Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, a Master’s in humanities from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and an International Compliance & Anti-Corruption Certification,  from the Institute for U.S. Law, George Washington University Law School. 

What You’ll Learn on This Episode:

• [:56] Gabriela tells us about your career path and how she worked her way to becoming chief compliance officer at Grupo CAP and what cultivated an interest in ethics and compliance?
• [2:53] What does CAP do? What are Gabriela’s goals there as head of the compliance program? How far along is she in implementing those goals and what still needs to be done?
• [4:48] Before joining CAP, Gabriela worked for BHP as their Latin America CCO. What was that experience like for her and how has it informed what she is doing now?
• [6:47] How much risk does regional politics present to Gabriela when designing and carrying out the E&C program?
• [11:17] How hard is it to enact cultural change in Latin America given the way people have been acting and doing business there? What has Gabriela tried to do so far in this to impact the culture at CAP? How successful has she been? What else would she like to accomplish?