Team size: Ten
 
What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the past year, I have led the legal strategy for McCain’s third and final ‘Farm of the Future’ located in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, delivered in partnership with the University of Leeds following a highly competitive global investment process.

Operating at regional board level and reporting onto the global board, I developed the legal, governance and risk framework underpinning this globally significant investment decision.

A bespoke legal and governance architecture balanced commercial objectives, academic freedom, ESG commitments and long-term supply chain resilience. This required navigation of complex and novel legal issues, including fundamentally different IP ownership models between academia and industry, and governance mechanisms capable of preserving academic independence while retaining commercial control. The resulting framework directly enabled global board approval where the investment would not otherwise have met risk thresholds.

Set against the backdrop of farmer protests and increasing pressure on UK growers, the project anchors a strategically critical initiative bolstering the local economy and supporting Northern farmers through practical, research-led solutions aimed at improving competitiveness, resilience and sustainability in a changing world.

What do you see as an opportunity or risk over the next six months?

The most significant opportunity – and corresponding risk – over the next six months is the successful integration of the GBI region with EMENA, creating a more agile and competitive operating model for Europe.

I am leading key elements of the transformation including the integration of the two regional legal teams under a single leadership and governance model, establishing a unified approach to governance, risk management and execution.

The integration is inherently cross-jurisdictional and requires careful navigation of complex European works council and consultation requirements. Any failure in sequencing, governance or stakeholder engagement would expose the business to material risk, while undermining trust and momentum during a period of organisational uncertainty.

My focus as General Counsel is on ensuring the transformation delivers strategic value without destabilising the organisation, aligning leadership behaviours, decision-making frameworks and legal risk appetite across jurisdictions. Executed well, the integration will materially strengthen McCain’s regional competitiveness and resilience. Executed poorly, it could be highly disruptive.

As the legal landscape evolves, what steps are you taking to foster a culture of continuous learning and development within the legal team, ensuring that they are all well-equipped to address future legal complexities?

I have made continuous learning a strategic priority for my team, taking a targeted, impact-driven approach to development, combining selective external training with strong internal knowledge-sharing across the business and peer networks.

A particular focus has been the thoughtful adoption of legal technology to drive efficiency, consistency and future readiness across jurisdictions. The regional team benefits from being part of an ambitious global legal organisation, including the established MLIFT (McCain Legal Innovation For Tomorrow) programme. I intentionally embed technology in day-to-day decision-making, rather than treating it as a standalone initiative, ensuring it delivers practical value at pace. To support adoption, paralegals are assigned as SMEs, sharing practical insights and maintaining accessible up-to-date guidance so learning is consistently applied across the region.

The objective is to build a legal function that is adaptable, commercially aware and confident supporting the business with speed, judgment and consistency across jurisdictions.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

The human dimensions of risk have been the most defining aspect of my career, particularly when facts change faster than contracts. One experience that stands out was supporting Procurement during the early phases of the Ukraine war, when the steel supply chain tightened almost overnight and counterparties were being moved onto, or towards, sanctions lists. I worked alongside Procurement to secure continuity of supply at pace, but within a disciplined risk framework: stress-testing counterparties, tightening contractual protections, and establishing clear escalation points so commercial urgency never outran compliance.

In a very different context, negotiating directly with a private landowner over the sale of part of his hunting estate for a wind farm reinforced the same lesson: progress is unlocked by judgment and understanding people, not legal mechanics alone.

Together, these experiences have shaped my belief that the General Counsel’s role is to bridge worlds – legal and commercial, principle and pragmatism.