René Paula Molina

Chief Legal Officer & Head of Corp Dev

2024

Lecturer of Law

2024

Technology and Venture Capital Law https://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/courses/34196 https://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/courses/35166

Director Board of Directors

2022

Venture Partner

2020

Advising portfolio companies for Closed Loop Ventures, which seeks innovative technologies and business models that are accelerating the circular economy. CLV is an early-stage (pre-seed and seed) fund that invests in companies across (a) polymers & packaging, (b) food & agtech, (c) waste- and toxicity-reducing technologies in apparel & cosmetics and (d) supply chain logistics & technology. https://closedlooppartners.com/

Advisor

2023 - 2024

SVP, Legal & Business Affairs (General Counsel, Head of People & IT)

2022 - 2023

General Counsel

2021 - 2022

Named Executive Officer (NEO) at Nasdaq listed company. Head of Legal, HR and IT departments. Scaled clinical-stage biopharmas by merging Covaxx and United Neuroscience, raising venture capital, and taking company public through traditional IPO (NASDAQ: VAXX). Operations in Taiwan, Ireland and USA. Clinical trials all around the world (Australia, Belgium, Mongolia, Philippines, etc.). https://vaxxinity.com/

Advisor (contract)

2020 - 2021

Chief Financial Officer / Closer

2021 - 2021

Led strategic process that culminated in the sale of Bionic to Accenture. M&A.

Chief Operating Officer

2020 - 2021

Led Finance, Legal and Operations for Bionic while also managing client work as a Partner covering conglomerates and FMCG/CPG companies.

Operating Partner & Interim Chief Financial Officer

2019 - 2020

https://onbionic.com/

Operating Partner

2018 - 2019

Global Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs; Division General Counsel (Zx Ventures)

2016 - 2018

For ABInBev Global - Led the $12 billion dollar disposition of the Miller family of brands to Molson Coors following ABInBev’s acquisition of SABMiller, among other transactions. For ZxVentures division - Full stack general counsel where I led the Legal & Corporate Affairs functions for AB InBev’s “disruptive growth” division. Hired and managed international team of lawyers and corporate affairs professionals spread across 8 offices that supported employees in 20+ countries. ZXV has worldwide business units at the intersection of private equity, e-commerce operations, food & beverage, and fast-moving consumer packaged goods. Significant operational experience in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, France, China and Australia. Corporate development (venture capital, strategic investments and M&A), eCommerce (incubator, accelerator and operator of direct-to-consumer estores and marketplaces in dozens of countries), retail brand experiences (through restaurants, brewpubs and pubs) and science and technology innovation (through both in-house and external R&D). http://zx-ventures.com

Global Legal Director, Commercial + M&A

2015 - 2016

Founder & CEO (sold to Miku)

2013 - 2017

Nurtured idea, recruited mechanical engineers and industrial designers, developed prototypes, patented technology and sold to Miku (https://mikucare.com/). Hardware is hard! Inventor of Patent US20150228175A1 http://so.nr/

Legal & Business Affairs

2012 - 2015

Business Affairs Sourcing new relationships and negotiating deals to support new product launches and international expansion. Legal Led the legal team for Audible, ACX.com and our international subsidiaries through a period of incredible growth during which we added products (Whispersync for Voice and Immersion Reading), marketplaces (Audible Australia) and hundreds of employees across multiple new international locations (for a total of 11 locations in 9 countries). Supported marketplaces in the US (audible.com), UK (audible.co.uk), Germany (audibile.de) and France (audible.fr), structured and launched our new marketplace in Australia (audible.com.au), and laid down the groundwork for upcoming international launches. Supported new product development and all digital marketing efforts, from lead generation and SEO partnerships to retargeting and advertising relationships. Negotiated all major contracts, including content licensing, production and distribution as well as business development deals. Advised the executive team, marketing, engineering, finance, human resources and other teams on a wide variety of business and legal matters.

Non-Executive Director, Board of Directors

2008 - 2013

Neighborhood Trust is a community development federal credit union providing banking services to the hispanic community in New York City. As a member of the Board of Directors of a regulated deposits-taking financial institution, I participated in monthly meetings where we set policy and strategy, reviewed financials and oversaw loan write-offs and investments. The Board also got involved in all aspects of running a medium-sized business, including decisions with respect to human resources, material vendor agreements and company litigation. I was re-elected at the 2011 shareholder meeting for a second 3-year term. https://neighborhoodtrustfcu.org/