President and CEO - Alfredo Gracian

Based in the USA, Alfredo Gracian has over 16 years of experience in top multinational corporations, where he acquired international expertise including but not limited to: Strategic Transactional and Organizational Services, Business Transactions, Mergers and Acquisitions, Contract Negotiations and Operations Management.  He is an expert in leading and closing major cross-border transactions in many countries across different industries.  Mr. Gracian is also an expert in corporate compliance global program development and implementation through the Six-Sigma methodology.  

Most recently Mr. Gracian was a Senior Corporate Counsel in the International Division for Office Depot, Inc., where he advised Senior Management  in the negotiations  of merger and acquisition deals  that resulted in the successful expansion of the company into China, India and the Czech Republic.  Mr. Gracian also had anticorruption compliance responsibilities of Office Depot globally, and he was the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Office Depot Mexico.  Prior to Office Depot, Mr. Gracian spent 6 years at General Electric Company as the Latin America and Spain Counsel where he had transactional and compliance responsibility for all GE Energy business in Latin America and Spain leading transactions in excess of US $2 billion per year.  He was also responsible for project finance, risk management, and government relations work.  He was the Chairman of the GE Sourcing Practice Group and the GE Government Relations Group for civil law jurisdictions.  Mr. Gracian obtained his Six Sigma Green Belt Certification at GE where he developed a number of key process improvements for executing international deals.  Mr. Gracian also worked for General Motors Corporation as International Counsel, where he supported transferring GM equity interests globally to Delphi, a spin-off of GM.  Prior to General Motors, Mr. Gracian worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions.  Prior to that, Mr. Gracian worked for some of Mexico’s top law firms as a corporate lawyer.

Mr. Gracian graduated from the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, USA where he obtained his LL.M. focusing in International Business Transactions.  He was Editor of the Yale Journal of International Law and Yale Journal on Regulation.  He also graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México “UNAM” (National Autonomous University of Mexico) in México City, ranked the Best University in the Spanish Speaking World , where he obtained his J.D. graduating 1st in a class of 792 students with the highest honors and where he was granted the Barreda Medal, the highest distinction granted by this university.  He also received the Best Student of Mexico Medal by Dr. Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico.

Mr. Gracian speaks five languages and he is the author of Legal Analysis of the Controlling Company of a Finance Group, Mexico City, Mexico.