In just five years at the leading South African underwriter, Janine Janse van Vuuren has successfully driven legal and compliance into the forefront of business decision-making. She built the entire legal function from scratch over three years, and became legal, compliance and company secretarial head in 2013.

‘The legal department has made a significant contribution to the company results’, Janse van Vuuren says. ‘In terms of cost saving on external legal spend, savings on claims leakage, as well as giving the company a competitive advantage in terms of skills and expertise’.

Janse van Vuuren has spearheaded training and other measures to drive forward compliance with South Africa’s 2014 TCF framework, which aims to raise professionalism in the country’s financial services market. ‘This is somewhat of a passion of mine and the opportunity to do this as part of a legal role is extremely fulfilling’. When working with outside counsel, she says, what she terms ‘a lack of realism’ can sometimes rear its head. ‘Law firms tend to forget that business is “in the business of making money” and need realistic and cost-effective legal solutions’.