About

Karl Vincent assumed his current role in November 2015, acting as associate general counsel of utilities company Vector Limited in Auckland. Vincent strongly believes that ‘legal is not a box ticking exercise; my job is to help the business win more business on the back of deals that are sustainable’. In his previous role as GC of Dimension Data’s New Zealand operations, Vincent was tasked with bringing the national business’ legal support in line with its regional Singaporean function. He hit the ground running, spending his first two months in the role negotiating a major outsourcing deal with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore in 2014. Vincent focused on ‘broadening the perception of what a lawyer does’. ‘Dimension Data New Zealand is an ambitious, client-focused organisation that has made a business of developing bespoke products and solutions’, he says. ‘It’s as far removed as you can get from mature, process-driven industry veterans such as Microsoft and Cisco.  Our work carries a lot of risk, which Dimension Data is not traditionally good at pricing or managing’. As well as bringing in processes for assessing and dealing with risk, he has focused on strengthening collaboration with the Singaporean legal team.  Previously supporting the $1.5bn ultrafast fibre broadband investment at Crown Fibre Holdings, Vincent is seasoned in the nation’s developing telecommunications industry. When it comes to outside counsel, his major wish is more regular updates on costs. ‘It would be great to have transparent reporting on costs as they are incurred – on a daily, weekly, real-time basis.  Our external counsel are responsive and I have never had reason to question the fees, but it’s always good to have an early heads-up rather than a surprise at month-end’. Vincent will continue to make impactful change on within his new legal team at Vector.