Isabella Maciel de Sá

I was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, received my J.D. in 1988 from Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP). In May 2005, took part on the executive training “Women Leading Business” at Harvard Business School and in September 2006 completed “Developing Strategy for Value Creation” at the London Business School.

Began my career working in my father law firm specialized in litigation and commercial contracts. Moved to São Paulo in 1998, where I became an associate to Machado Meyer Advogados law firm. My “In House” career started in 1999 when I became General Counsel for Canbras, a joint venture between Bell Canada International and TVA on the telecommunications industry. In 2004 I became McDonald´s Brazil General Counsel, also responsible for Compliance. Prior to joining Novartis, I was the General Counsel for Cargill, where I worked for 3 years with responsibilities for the whole country. Worked in Novartis from July 2010 to June 2014 where I held the positions of Brazil Head of Legal, overseen the Country Compliance Officer activities, and Brazil Champion for Diversity & Inclusion. I am one of the founders of Jurídico de Saias (Legal in Skirts), a group formed by over 1.300 women that work in-house legal departments. In January 2015, I became Legal Director of Abbott Laboratórios do Brasil, where I remains today, managing a team of 9 people, responsible for 15 Business Divisions and 2 manufacturing sites.In 2017 I become one of the creators and sponsors of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

I serve as aCouncil for Labor Relations (CORT) at Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) and as a Council forBrazilian Bar Association (OAB) Council of the State of São Paulo.

On 2017 I was was elected “Latin America General Counsel of the Year 2018” by the Association of Corporate Lawyers, having also run for “Global General Counsel of the Year 2018 ”. On 2019, I was nominated by Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Latin America for the “Outstanding Ally Award ” and my team is running for the "In-house Legal Team of the Year 2020 Award" by The Legal 500 and I have just been recognized by my colleagues as one of the "Top 10 Most Admired Legal Executives of 2020" in Brazil by Analise Editorial.

My passion is the sea and I love to dive.