The AFP association worked with the Headhunter Seminarium in the process of selecting candidates for each company.
In addition to monitoring the pension reform, in recent months AFPs were concentrated in another objective: to look for candidates to exercise as independent directors in companies where pension funds have a relevant shareholding position.
This, within the framework of the 2025 shareholder boards, where as in all years, the administrators played their letters to install their representatives in open corporations.
The balance was positive. Together with the work carried out by the AFP Association with the advice of Headhunter Seminarium, The administrators managed to choose 15 independent regular directors and a substituteas DF could verify with public information from the shareholders’ boards.
Of the 22 companies in which they proposed candidates, in 12 they managed to install their cards. This happened in Tricot, BCI, Aguas Andinas, Forus, Mallplaza, Real Estate Manquehue, Hites, Paz, Socvesa, Besalco, Ripley and Multiexport.
Two seats
In the last three, they even managed to keep Two chairs at the Board of Directors.
This is the president of the AMCHAM, Roberta Valenca, who has more than 20 years of experience in the mass consumption industry, in several countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, was one of the names elected by AFPs in Multiexport. Next to her, the former general manager of Coca-Cola, Abel Bouchon.
In RipleyMeanwhile, the directors of companies Felipe Zegers and María Paz Gillet were elected. In Besalco, the cards that installed the AFPs were the commercial engineer with experience in tables such as Grupo Compañía Compañía y Forus, Catalina Cabello and José Miguel Quintana, former manager of the Corporate Division of Banco de Chile and was previously in Citibank, in charge of Banking Business for LATAM Based in the US.
While in Mallplaza, they bet on two chairs in the board, the votes only reached for a seat. Thus, Manuel Ovalle was elected and was left out – although by little margin – the second candidate of the AFP, Richard Büchi.
Meanwhile, the former president of Santander Chile, Mauricio Larraín, landed at the BCI table, thereby sealing his return to banking.
Another recognized name was the AFP commitment in Aguas Andinas, where they managed to install the former defense minister, Vivianne Blanlot. As a substitute, they put Alejandro Molnar.
-In Tricot, meanwhile, they got the proposal of the AFP, Antonio Ureta, to be elected. The same happened in Forus, where Juan Pablo Vega was elected at the Board of Directors.
In real estate Manquehue successfully bet on Diego Bacigalupo, while in Hites they managed to install Darío Amenábar.
Also, Patrick Horn was elected in the Peace Directory and Dolores Lasen in Socvesa.
On the contrarythere were 10 companies in which the AFPs failed to obtain a representation of pension funds through a director, despite having made a proposal prior to the Board.
This happened in Metropolitan Aguas -Matriz de Aguas Andinas -Enel Américas, Magallanes Electric Company, Echeverría Izquierdo, Pucobre, Embonor, ENAEEX, Commercial Soquimich, Pacific Containers and Phosphoros.
New candidates
Along with finding the most suitable names to represent the pension funds in companies, One of the objectives proposed by the administrators in 2025 was to seek new candidates.
To do this, different industry sources comment, a wide search work was carried out, which includes multiple alternatives, given the disabilities that weigh in the regulation, and then be able to choose the best lists.
In the face of this process, the search and the lifting of profiles for each company began before. In November 2024, the president of Seminarium, Rafael Rodríguez, assured DF that “it was decided to leave before, which gives the possibility of working with more time and that allows in turn, that the Headhunter can seek the more names. That is the great benefit and probably its most concrete result can be that this year more new names appear.”
The list of elected directors reflects that the objective was completed. Of the total names proposed by the AFPs, most of them were registered in the Registry of Mandatory Directors of the Superintendence of Pensions between the late 2024 and the first months of 2025, prior to the joints as established by the regulations.
For example, Mauricio Larraín entered the list on March 11, 2025; Roberta Valence, entered on January 24 of this year; and the two directors who were elected in Besalco also registered the first month of this year.
Another of the challenges in which the AFP association emphasizes every year is to incorporate more women in the processes. Among the 15 elected representatives, five are women.
