Verónica Raffo, partner in FERRERE, is the most recognized woman business leader in Uruguay, according to a survey conducted by the El Observador newspaper. Second and third place in the ranking went to the CEO of Coca Cola Uruguay, Andrewina McCubbin (former president of the Uruguay-United States Chamber of Commerce) and the agribusiness entrepreneur and philanthropist Princess Laetitia d’Arenberg.

The survey was taken among business owners and executives in different areas of activity to find out who they considered the leading women entrepreneurs and executives in Uruguay and why. Raffo led the ranking and was highlighted for her activity as corporate lawyer, as well as for her activism in women’s leadership. The publication notes that “businesspeople who voted for her recognized her actions in the struggle for women and for her outstanding professional activity in a predominantly male sphere.”

On this, Raffo said: “This recognition is cause for pride personally, but above all as a member of FERRERE, because our firm holds women’s leadership among its core values, not only theoretically, but imbued in the firm’s every action and daily life. From the outset I had role models to follow: when I joined the firm it already had women partners, with leading roles at a time when that was rare not only in Latin America but also throughout the world. And today dozens of tremendous professional women who are part of the firm see in so many women partners and senior advisors at FERRERE, who head up practice areas at regional level or are referents in their specialties, as models of how to be tremendously successful professionals and at the same time have a full personal life.”

Raffo participates actively in FERRERE’s local and regional leadership. She is also president of the Uruguay Association of Women Entrepreneurs (OMEU), Latin American commissioner for the World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (FCEM), and sits on the Advisory Counsel of Más Emprendedoras (a program co-executed by Fomin-IADB and Endeavor that promotes development of woman-led enterprises). She is also flagger in Uruguay for Vital Voices (founded by Hillary Clinton), participates on the board of the Vance Center’s Women’s Leadership program, is an officer of the International Bar Association, member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization) and director of Enseña Uruguay (Teach for All).

FERRERE’s directing partner, Andrés Cerisola, noted: “Verónica Raffo is a true ‘rock star,’ and it does not surprise me one bit that in a survey among Uruguay’s business leaders she has been ranked as the most inspiring woman in the country’s business world. Verónica represents the essence of FERRERE, because women’s leadership is one of our top priorities. Verónica is an extraordinary role model and a source of enormous motivation for the hundreds of women who work at FERRERE.

Our women partners are not marginal or tokens, but instead protagonists in our firm’s leadership. This is obviously the case of Verónica, but also, among others, Sandra González who at our four-country level co-presides the highly important Litigation & Arbitration Group and who this year became chair of the Latin American Council of the New York State Bar; Lindsay Sykes, who regionally heads up our Investigations & Compliance Group; and Cristina Vázquez, who directs our Administrative and Regulatory Law Group and in 2015 became the first woman in Uruguay’s history to be appointed as chaired professor in a Public Law subject at Universidad de la República. There are many more examples, because women in leadership is not a ‘policy’ at FERRERE; it is something that for over 20 years has been at the heart of our organizational culture.”