Juan Carlos Valencia Marquez

Juan Carlos Valencia Marquez is a partner in the Bogotá office of Holland & Knight. Mr. Valencia has practiced for more than 20 years with an emphasis in tax law, tax controversies, litigation, corporate structuring issues and global contracts. Mr. Valencia is fluent in Spanish and English and has substantial language capabilities in Portuguese. Although Mr. Valencia is a Colombian lawyer, he has been employed by multinational companies in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Miami, as well as in Bogotá.

Mr. Valencia has extensive experience in tax controversies. He has successfully defended clients against a number of assessments by DIAN and various Colombian municipalities in the $10-100 million range. Mr. Valencia has successfully challenged cases before the Consejo de Estado for a number of decrees relative to tax matters as well as certain official tax opinions. He is currently engaged in what is expected to be a lengthy tax-related trial for a major international bank and in defending a major cosmetics company against DIAN. Mr. Valencia is also an active participant in the legislative and rule-making process in Colombia concerning tax issues. He has participated in significant lobbying efforts resulting in changes to the Colombian tax code.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Valencia engaged in the practice of law at several private law firms and at KPMG. In addition, he served as general counsel for Arcos Dorados (McDonald's master franchisee for Latin America), corporate tax director for Coca-Cola Femsa S.A. de C.V. and for Panamerican Beverages, Inc. (Coca-Cola Company anchor bottler for Latin America). Among his other responsibilities in these positions was a focus on structuring investments in Colombia and other Latin American jurisdictions, including issues related to transfer pricing.

Mr. Valencia has done significant course work at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Harvard Law School and the University of Miami.