Could you give us a brief overview of your role?
I was brought into K2 to develop the LATAM immigration practice. Historically, K2’s immigration services for the Americas were centralised in the USA; as Immigration Leader – LATAM, my role is to further establish the practice in this region by strengthening and extending our client relationships. Doing this will help to increase awareness of the K2 brand in LATAM, leading to contract renewals, new clients and the ultimate goal of sustainable growth.
Have you always worked within immigration?
I began my career at PwC as a trainee member of the Tax Consulting Services team. From there, I joined Machado Meyer, one of the largest law firms in Brazil, where I worked as a partner assisting international clients on corporate matters. Three years later, I had my first child, and whilst I was on maternity leave, my priorities and my vision changed. Not only did I want more flexibility and autonomy, I also wanted to be my own boss. I often joke that I gave birth to two children at the same time – my son and a plan for building my own law practice!
That was the point at which I started practising immigration law. I was living in Bahia, Brazil, and at that time, the market was rich with energy and real estate investors, for whom immigration was a key concern. It was the perfect climate in which to establish a law firm specialising in immigration law. I enjoyed running my own firm, but when my husband relocated to Houston, I chose to follow him and so had to sell the practice. We spent two years in the US before returning to Brazil – this time Rio de Janeiro. My repatriation process was extremely difficult, and as my children were studying at an American school in the city, I saw how expat parents were struggling too. This inspired me to establish my own relocation and immigration company: I ran this for three years before returning to PwC, who approached me and asked me to organise their legal services area.
After two years, I got a transfer to PwC’s International Assignment Services. For me, this was a dream come true as the role gave me the opportunity to draw on my experience of running both a law and an immigration practice. At this point, I had already known Patricia Tavares, K2 Country Director – Brazil, for a while, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I got the opportunity to meet further members of the K2 Family. Patricia invited me to a celebration of K2 Brazil’s eighteen months in operation, and it was here that I met Phil Hunt, Managing Director – Americas, and Nick Plummer, K2’s CEO. I think that I must have made a good impression, as less than six months later, K2 approached me to take on the newly-created role of Immigration Leader, LATAM.
What projects have you been working on since you joined K2?
I’ve been working on developing our regional partner network, which involves getting to know our current partners better, as well as onboarding new ones. In addition, I’ve been exploring how we could further streamline our communications with both partners and clients, e.g by setting up digital templates and using process milestones as points at which responsibilities are reclarified. Finally, I’ve been keeping a keen eye out for new talent, as K2 Brazil is still growing and having the best people on board is key to success.
How would you describe your team?
The team is very communicative and supportive. Although we work remotely most of the time, we are always reaching out to each other to share or request information. Whenever one of us needs help, there are always multiple people who raise their hands to offer support. The atmosphere within the team feels very familial, especially as we’re always sharing jokes and taking a genuine interest in each other’s lives outside of work.
What does the future have in store for K2 Brazil?
Whilst LATAM is a challenging region, it is also one that is rich in potential. Its global mobility market is buoyant, which means that a lot of companies based in the region are looking to extend their operations or build new operational arms. This creates multiple opportunities for K2, especially with regard to increasing the number of services that we provide to existing clients.
In addition, we are keen to develop our event programme, as events are an extremely effective way of gaining new knowledge, strengthening existing partnerships and laying the foundations for new relationships. They also provide us with another platform through which to spread the word about K2 Brazil: we have a solid, expert immigration practice here and we want to make the wider world aware of that.
