Team size: (M&A team only) 6 people

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

Over the past year, my legal team and I have been involved in a number of strategically significant and complex matters supporting MSC’s international operations. While specific transactions and counterparties remain confidential, our work has included cross-border M&A, strategic investments and corporate reorganisations, as well as major commercial agreements, partnerships and other high-value projects.

My role has involved leading and coordinating the legal aspects of these matters, from structuring and due diligence through negotiation, execution and implementation, often across multiple jurisdictions and in close cooperation with senior management, finance, tax, compliance and external counsel.

We have also advised on corporate governance, regulatory and compliance matters, and on the management of contractual, operational and reputational risks arising from an increasingly complex international business environment.

Overall, our focus has been on acting as a strategic partner to the business—managing legal risk while enabling commercially effective and pragmatic solutions.

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

During periods of instability or crisis, my approach is to combine rapid risk assessment with pragmatic and business-oriented legal advice. The priority is to identify the most significant legal, regulatory and contractual exposures, assess their potential operational impact and provide management with clear options for decision-making.

Given MSC’s international operations, this often requires coordinating responses across multiple jurisdictions and working closely with senior management, compliance, finance and operational teams.

I also focus on anticipating potential developments rather than simply reacting to them, ensuring that contractual protections, governance processes and contingency measures support business continuity. The objective is to protect the organisation while preserving the flexibility required to operate effectively in a rapidly changing environment.

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. What does being strategic mean to you?

To me, being strategic means understanding the business well enough to anticipate legal and commercial risks rather than simply reacting to them. It requires looking beyond the immediate legal question and considering the broader operational, financial and reputational implications. At MSC, this means working closely with management from the early stages of key projects, providing clear options and helping structure solutions that protect the organisation while enabling its strategic objectives.

We are currently living through a time of geopolitical change, and the world order that we have come to take for granted for many years is being rewritten. Does this affect your company’s risk profile and, if so, what are you doing to mitigate this?

Absolutely. For a global organisation such as MSC, geopolitical developments can rapidly affect regulatory requirements, sanctions exposure, supply chains, contractual relationships and operations across multiple jurisdictions. Our approach is therefore increasingly proactive: monitoring developments, identifying potential exposures early and working closely with compliance, management and operational teams to develop appropriate mitigation measures. From a legal perspective, flexibility and scenario planning have become essential to maintaining resilience in an increasingly unpredictable environment.

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

Modern in-house counsel need to combine strong legal judgement with commercial understanding, pragmatism and the ability to operate effectively in complex and rapidly changing environments. Equally important are communication, leadership and the ability to translate legal complexity into clear business decisions. In my view, the best in-house lawyers do not simply identify risks: they understand the organisation’s objectives and help management find practical and responsible ways to achieve them.