What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

The pressure to optimise resources and do more for less continues to be prevalent across the company. Considerable effort is being spent on business process reengineering and undertaking structural reforms across the company.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Legal aspects cannot be addressed in isolation. They must be dealt with in integration with other aspects of risk management.. We believe that successful management of legal risks hinges on the ability to pull together and engage all stakeholders as one team in identifying related issues and navigating any crisis through a coordinated, communicative, and collaborative approach

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. How are you strategic?

The title of GC itself inherently defines the role we should be playing. I seek to build confidence in stakeholders across all levels to think of their GC as the 1st call for advice, not just on legal issues but all general aspects of the business and operations. This in itself exemplifies the basic and added value that a GC brings to the organisation. It is also important to remain humble and recognise that every matter that comes across our way is a new opportunity to experience, learn and leverage on that knowledge to become better versions of ourselves.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

I advocate strongly a set of values for my team: IQ – Know your work, business, and the customer (internal and external). EQ – Empathise. Communication – Be open, concise, show interest, ask questions and deliver your message clearly. Attitude – Show passion, resilience, and positivity. Professionalism – Take pride, demonstrate accountability, and maintain zero tardiness. Aptitude – Anticipate, adapt and pursue continuous review and improvement. Productivity – Focus on optimisation and efficiency. Challenge – Use creativity to convert challenges and risks into opportunities. Collaboration – Collaborate, support and encourage others, maintaining zero toxicity.