Owen Jones – GC Powerlist
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China and Hong Kong 2017

Owen Jones

General counsel, Asia Pacific | Hitachi Data Systems, Hong Kong

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China and Hong Kong 2017

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Owen Jones

General counsel, Asia Pacific | Hitachi Data Systems, Hong Kong

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Owen Jones’ success in the in-house world was built on a solid foundation as a corporate lawyer for Linklaters, Charles Russell and Burges Salmon based in both London and Paris. Deciding to move to an in-house role in 2006, Jones took on a position with Hitachi Data Systems, first in the United Kingdom and by 2008 in Hong Kong. After around three years as part of the Asia Pacific legal team at Hitachi, Jones was made general counsel for the region, a role he has held for five years. Jones cites ‘moving to Asia Pacific and experiencing the way business is done in very different jurisdictions’ as a career highlight, and also speaks fondly of ‘working on some very large, ground-breaking global managed services deals’. Jones is satisfied with the advancements the team has made during his tenure, advising that they ‘now have a team of six extremely strong and capable lawyers covering the Asia Pacific region… and each key sub region (North Asia, South Asia and Australia and New Zealand), which aligns with our business’. This commercial alignment ties in with what Jones believes to be one of the essential attributes of an in-house counsel: ‘I believe that the most important quality in an in-house lawyer is pragmatism. You can be the best academic lawyer on the planet and still fail as a corporate counsel if you fail to take a commercial approach. Clearly, there is a tight rope to be walked and we have fiduciary duties which trump all else, but we must be business-friendly and strive to get deals done’. Jones is also optimistic that a common regulatory approach can be found across Asia Pacific: ‘My hope is that, as we globalise, our laws and regulations will be harmonised to a greater and greater extent’, making cross border business easier for all parties concerned.

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