DLA Piper has appointed Ana Garcia Fau, formerly of Hibu and Telefonica, and Guillaume Penot, President for Europe for Moët Hennessy, as Non-Executive Directors to the firm's International Board. Ana will also join the firm's Global Board.
Ana Garcia Fau, who began her career at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, has held several executive positions at the Telefonica Group, as Corporate Development Officer and CFO for the Spanish and Latin American directory business. Between 2006 and 2014 she was CEO, expanding her role to the US Hispanic market. She has developed a broad experience driving operational and digital transformation as well as significant M&A exposure. Ana read Law and then Economics & Business Administration at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.
Since 2014, Ana has pursued a portfolio career as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of listed and non-listed companies, internationally. Today, she serves on the board of Merlin Properties, a leading Spanish real estate company with over €9.8 bn of assets under management, and of Gestamp Automocion, as well as being a member of their Audit Committees. In France, she sits on the board of two listed companies, Eutelsat Communications, the third largest communications satellite operator, and Technicolor, a technology company focused on the media and entertainment sectors, where she is chair of its Nominations committee. Ana is also chair of the Audit Committee of Renovalia Energy Group, a renewable energy company that is backed by Cerberus Capital.
Guillaume Penot is currently the President for Europe for Moët Hennessy, the wines and spirits division of LVMH. The business employs 6,000 people worldwide and has a turnover of €4.8 billion. After attending Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Bordeaux and gaining a Masters in Finance and International Business, Guillaume began his career in finance, joining drinks company Remy Martin before studying at INSEAD, where he studied on the MBA programme. He subsequently re-joined Remy Cointreau as Deputy Director of Development at their HQ in Paris and shortly thereafter was appointed as CFO for the Americas moving to New York for five years until re-locating to Sydney as Managing Director for Australia.
Guillaume then joined drinks distribution company, Maxxium, in Hong Kong where he spent 3 years as Asia Pacific Managing Director with his role expanding to include Southern Europe and Latin America. In 2005, he joined Moët Hennessy as Director of Strategy & Development, then became Managing Director, Western Europe, and in 2012 was appointed President for Europe, based in London, with full responsibility for driving the strategy for Europe and the operations in more than 50 countries.
The appointment of Ana and Guillaume follows the stepping down of Sean Mahon who has been a Non-Executive Director on DLA Piper's International and Global Boards since 2007.
Juan Picon, Global Co-Chairman at DLA Piper and Senior Partner of International, said: "As a large and diverse global law firm, the experience of highly successful international business people like Ana and Guillaume is invaluable to us. DLA Piper has always been known for breaking boundaries and thinking outside of the box, a reputation we are very proud of, and we believe that, in a rapidly changing legal landscape and market, the appointments of Ana and Guillaume will help us to continue to embrace new ideas and help us achieve our vision to be the leading global business law firm."
