María Alejandra Castillo

Maria Alejandra was born and raised in Caracas (Venezuela) in a family environment, being the eldest of four siblings. Considering her father was a commercial pilot, she had the opportunity to travel and get to know other countries and cultures. At young age, her grandparents, whom she was very close to, moved to the United States, so she spent most of her vacations with them. Here she improved her English and got to learn more about the American culture. 

In her third year of studying law in the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas), she started working as an intern in a well-known Venezuelan IP firm, where she “fell in love” with the IP field. In 2008 she obtained her LLM in IP (Master in Law) in the Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas. In 2010 she obtained a diploma as a legal translator and a year after, she joined one of the most prestigious IP Firms in Venezuela as the Director of the Trademark Prosecution Department in which she had the important challenge of carrying out the procedural guidelines of the Department in order to implement, in the Firm, the quality standard system under ISO regulations. Well, in order to achieve the latter, she participated in the management development program in the most reputed international Venezuelan managing school called Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración IESA, in 2017. Thereafter, she became partner of the Firm, where along with her team, she managed trademark portfolios and intellectual protection processes of local and international clients in Venezuela and Latin-America. 

MAC, as affectionally called in BALDER, was also part of the board of directors of the Venezuelan IP Agents association (COVAPI) between 2015 and 2019, taking responsibility of important challenges, such as representing the association before the Venezuelan Supreme Court in the stamp law enacted in 2015. This law established, in a discriminatory manner, the payment of the region’s highest taxes for foreign applicants in the IP filed. 

Currently, MAC is also a member of several committees, for example INTA (International Trademark Association) and ASIPI (Inter American Intellectual Property Association).  

With more than 18 years of experience in the IP field, MAC, her kids and husband, a Venezuelan with Spanish roots, decided to undertake a new family adventure in Madrid and accepted BALDER´s invitation to join the team. In BALDER she can continue her personal and professional evolution in the law field, which has always fascinated her. As MAC says, “for me, BALDER represents a unique opportunity of personal and professional growth and also a challenge to contribute in its expansion, with my experience”.  

In her free time MAC enjoys going out and spending quality time with her family.