Leaders League: What are the main challenges and advantages of heading the legal department of the largest digital real estate company in Brazil?

Ana Pellegrini: Regulatory issues are our greatest challenge. When Brazil’s current real estate regulations were published, they did not anticipate that technology could be used to intermediate and facilitate the relationship between landlords and tenants, buyers and sellers, building managers and administrators, and so on. My aim at QuintoAndar is working to overcome these legal obstacles and ensure that these regulations are not a stumbling block or an impediment for all of the benefits which our platform can bring to the real estate market and wider society.

The main advantage is being able to actively participate in the revolution which QuintoAndar is bringing about in the real estate market. We seek to offer the best property renting, selling and buying experience in the real estate market, making our client’s journeys increasingly agile, safe and as less bureaucratic as possible.

Diversity is one of the essential gears for the innovation of companies

What are the main challenges and opportunities with the advent the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD)?

The LGPD brings, as its key principles, economic and technological development, as well as innovation itself. In this sense, for us, Brazil’s new data protection law must be understood as a business opportunity. We see the LGPD as an opportunity to win over even greater trust from both our clients and business partners.

The new legislation brought about important changes regarding how companies must process personal data, and with regards to our culture at QuintoAndar, we promote innovation allied with fair play, in other words, doing the right thing. To achieve this, we have adopted a privacy by design methodology and maintain a transparent relationship with our users regarding how we process their data. This way, both businesses and data owners win. Thus, as with all organizations subject to the LGPD, our main challenge is to create and disseminate a culture of data protection and privacy – which is still under construction - within our company.
 

What legal challenges does QuintoAndar face in the real estate market due to its model of disruptive innovation?

In addition to the aforementioned regulatory issues, we must promote certain legislative changes to ensure that the transactions which take place on QuintoAndar’s platform are increasingly swift and efficient. Another challenge is bringing greater awareness and understanding to Brazil’s regulatory, governmental and judicial authorities regarding our business model and the benefits it generates.
 

How important is diversity and inclusion to QuintoAndar?

Diversity is one of the essential gears for the innovation of companies. I believe that the more diverse and inclusive a company is, the greater its ability to innovate. QuintoAndar is already a diverse company and this was a welcome surprise upon my arrival in early 2021. Diversity is a value which is already a part of the culture here, with fantastic inclusion initiatives, such as affirmative vacancies exclusively for individuals from minoritized groups. For example, Project Código Preto (Code Black), which is a technology qualification program exclusively for black individuals, in addition to other informative and educational initiatives which seek to raise awareness and educate all of our teams.
 

What are QuintoAndar’s future plans?

Regarding our legal department, we want to grow as a team and we will soon restructure to better serve our clients. Presently, within my department, we have the legal, compliance and privacy areas, and we will soon launch a new area focusing on government relations and public policies.

By: François Le Grand