Dr. Ivan Romo Valdovinos

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Dr. Ivan Romo Valdovinos

SOELI Consulting, Mexico City, Mexico

IVAN is a managing partner and is responsible for developing, implementing and operating the firm’s board of directors’ strategies and objectives. He also was CEO and Board Chairman of Sonpetrol México, a drilling and work-over oil and gas company. He had left his former law firm to join the company, expecting oil prices to be USD $100 per barrel, but three months later the sector crashed. Through it all, he kept the company running, and it continues to be in business.

When he was 25, Ivan was offered an opportunity to be part of a top Mexican law firm without having any bankruptcy practice, and was instructed to start it with the firm’s Tax & Customs partner. They had different visions in how to proceed, and while working on the acquisition of a bankrupted ongoing concern in 2009, the partner told him, “This won't be successful, and when it crashes, I will fire you.” He landed the acquisition, and they worked together for four more years. He now has international experience in commercial and labor consultancy, litigation, arbitration and insolvency, and he has participated as leading attorney, Of Counsel and expert witness in some of the most important insolvency cases in Mexico.

Ivan is an active member of the Mexican Bar Association and currently is the sub-coordinator of the Energy Commission. He is also a member of the International Insolvency Institute’s NextGen Program, ABI, Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Concursal and INSOL International. He has presented at conferences and given TV interviews in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. He also has taught undergraduate and master’s-level classes at the Escuela Libre de Derecho, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Universidad Panamericana, Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Jurídico, Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Estado de Hidalgo and the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice.

Education

  • Ph.D., Law, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • J.D., Escuela Libre de Derecho
  • M.B.A., Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
  • Master’s, Global Management, Tulane University and Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

“[Ivan] is recognized in Mexican forums for his participation in a number of academic events around insolvency…. I cannot imagine anyone more suited for the award than him.”