Career Biography

Doreen Iliasu is a lawyer with over three decades of legal experience and board and company secretarial practice.

Doreen began her career at Okai Anderson, Amakye & Co, law firm, as a Legal Assistant and its sister firm, Kofi Anderson & Co. (a Company Secretarial firm). She then worked as a Legal Officer at the Copyright Office of Ghana under the Ministry of Justice during her national service, where she was also the secretary to the board of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGHA).

Doreen then worked as an Assistant Manager in the Treaty Department of Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited, drafting and negotiating local treaties with insurance companies.

Subsequently, Doreen joined and served in various capacities at Merchant Bank Ghana Limited (now Universal Merchant Bank). She started as a Legal Officer, was appointed Head of Legal in the Investment Banking Division and Company Secretary to the three subsidiaries of Merchant Bank Ghana and then Head of the asset management subsidiary of that bank, Merban Investment Holdings LTD.

In those roles, she provided legal advice and services for the initial public offers (IPOs) of companies prior to their listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange, rights issues, tender offers and delisting of a multinational company and mergers and acquisitions of some companies in Ghana.

Doreen is currently Head of Legal and Governance of Stanbic Ghana Group. In that capacity, she has principal accountabilities of legal risk and corporate governance management for Stanbic Bank Ghana, Stanbic Holdings Ghana and its three subsidiary companies. She is also the executive sponsor for activities to achieve the women in management goal of 40%.

She has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) University of Ghana, Master of Business Administration (MBA) University of Leicester and is a Notary Public.

Key achievements include the building a future-ready legal team to support the current growth of the bank, adoption of appropriate technologies for efficiency and improved turnaround time and ensuring customer satisfaction (NPS) with the quality of legal work and staff engagement.

Doreen is married with four children. She is passionate about empowering women unearth the best versions of themselves.

Team size: 12 lawyers, 1 legal assistant, 2 legal pupils

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Supporting the compliance of the Stamp Duty Act by facilitating a framework for the payment of stamp duty and the stamping of all facility letters and security documentation.

I have been involved in the roll out of Legal Risk Awareness sessions across 56 branches and head office units of the bank to create awareness of legal risks and how to avoid or manage them. The curriculum is based on frequently asked questions and legal issues that dominate the respective units. This has been seen as a proactive means of managing legal risks, especially with frontline staff, in the branches and other points of representation that have daily interactions with customers and could potentially place the bank at risk.

Given Ghana’s continued push for sustainability, what measures has your company taken to incorporate sustainability practices into its core business operations? How can general counsel contribute to driving such initiatives within the organisation?

The organisation I work for appointed an external consultant to assist in embedding its sustainability practices. The scope included conducting a materiality assessment with insights and recommendations from which a Sustainability Strategy was developed and approved. Subsequently, a Decarbonisation Strategy was developed and approved, and training and capacity building for the Board and staff has been rolled out. A Sustainability Unit was established to lead and coordinate the organisation’s Sustainability practices.

Personally, in my annual goals, I set a goal for my contribution to decarbonisation by reducing paper consumption, and managing business travel and staff commuting to the workplace.

Additionally, we agree on the legal support to be provided to green initiatives, including documentation for facilities provided to clients with green projects and participation in tree planting and management activities by staff.

Other units have other targets, including use of solar power, waste management, biodiversity impact by financed projects, green buildings and use of disposable plastic cups and bottles.

Considering recent developments, such as the country’s plan for a 24-hour economy, sustainability agenda and increasing digitalisation, are there any trends of which you think in-house lawyers should be mindful?

I strongly believe that in-house lawyers should keep up with artificial intelligence (AI) developments and utilise the technologies that will ensure that routine, mundane and non-complex legal work is performed seamlessly.This enables in-house lawyers deal with the more complex and high-risk areas of their roles. As with all draft documents, the review by a qualified lawyer of documents generated by AI is a necessity.

Sustainability is a way of life, and – hopefully – not a trend. Living a sustainable lifestyle is a means of preserving our ecosystems for future generations. I believe in-house lawyers should be conscious of sustainability and agree on team and individual targets for sustainable behaviours and activities.