About

Melissa Anastasiou has created a bespoke 18-strong function to support a business in, what she terms, ‘a constant state of transformation and innovative growth’. Following two restructures the function now has ‘a right-sized and right-skilled team that is fit for purpose for Spark as it is today’, Anastasiou says, adding: ‘At the end of this process the team is now less than half the size it was when I took up this role and meets McKinsey’s “best in class” benchmarks for peer organisations on size and cost’. She joined the company in its former life as Telecom New Zealand in 2009, before the 2011 demerger from Chorus. Anastasiou became GC two years on, ahead of the 2014 rebrand to Spark New Zealand. During this period, the business has required strong legal support at all stages of its growth and structural transformation. Anastasiou’s team has focused on high end, complex issues, empowering the business to take greater responsibility in transactions. ‘None of this is rocket science’, she says. ‘It is the implementation that has been the hardest challenge to solve – particularly in an organisation characterised by persistent people change’. Working closely with senior management, Anastasiou’s role has been pivotal to the company’s run of strategic transactions over recent years. When asked how law firms could improve, she replies: ‘Grow with us’. This, by Anastasiou’s definition, means investing in new specialisms and working alongside the client to tackle cost challenges ‘in creative ways that are sustainable to us’.