Team size: 6

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

Over the past twelve months, the focus has been on strengthening the Group’s legal and governance framework to support business continuity in an increasingly volatile geopolitical and regulatory landscape. As a company sourcing fresh produce across global markets, BAMA is directly exposed to geopolitical instability, climate-related disruptions and challenging trade conditions.

The Legal & GRC function has contributed to a more integrated and structured approach to enterprise risk management by working across functions to identify critical legal and regulatory vulnerabilities throughout the value chain. This has helped ensure that risk considerations are systematically embedded in both operational and strategic decision making, resulting in improved risk visibility, clearer decision thresholds and more consistent handling of disruption scenarios.

At the same time, we have significantly enhanced our in-house legal capabilities by expanding the team with specialised expertise within digitalisation and data protection. This has reduced our reliance on external counsel and improved our ability to manage complex regulatory requirements internally. We are thus in a position to actively support the company’s broader digital transformation agenda through having competence covering privacy, cybersecurity and digital compliance internally.

During the past year, our organisation has shifted towards a more proactive, risk-based and business integrated legal function. Legal is positioned not only as a safeguard, but also as a strategic enabler of robust operations and value creation.

As the world continues to face geopolitical, technological and economic uncertainty, how do you manage legal risk while still prioritising commercial objectives?

In today’s environment, managing legal risk is not about limiting exposure in isolation, but about enabling informed and commercially sound decision making.

Our approach has been to ensure that legal risk assessments are closely aligned with business priorities and integrated early in the strategic processes. This has been particularly important in areas influenced by international geopolitical developments, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory changes. Consequently, we have been able to identify potential risk scenarios, assess impact and provide practical, business-oriented alternatives.

A key enabler has been the development of a clear risk framework. This significantly improves the process of prioritization and strengthens accountability. Decisions are therefore taken with a shared understanding of both legal implications and commercial objectives.

What key trends – and challenges – should in-house lawyers be monitoring over the next year?

The pace of digitalisation and AI adoption constitutes one of the most defining trends. For in-house lawyers, this means moving beyond purely understanding regulation to also understanding how technology works in practice. This will enable us to provide relevant guidance on AI governance, data protection, and responsible use.

Cybersecurity and digital resilience are closely linked challenges. Increasingly complex and stringent regulation is placing higher demands on governance, documentation and incident preparedness. Our legal team plays an important role in ensuring these requirements are integrated into a broader risk management and business operations.