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

Facing the complex competitive landscape of the FMCG industry, we have progressively built a proactive intellectual property strategy centered on brand protection, establishing a defensive moat for our brands through defensive registrations and multi-class portfolio 布局. We spearheaded the establishment of an end-to-end accounts receivable early-warning and rapid collection mechanism. For overdue payments, we led cross-functional collaboration between legal and commercial teams, deploying a targeted approach combining precise negotiation pressure and efficient legal procedures. This initiative has recovered over RMB 100m in overdue payments in the past three years, directly contributing significant commercial value to the company.

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

Firstly, value creation (offense): proactively safeguarding business operations, identifying and driving opportunities to directly contribute to commercial objectives.

Secondly, foundation fortification (defence): maintaining compliance baselines, managing risks, and providing the certainty and stability necessary for the company’s sustainable development.

These two aspects are complementary, and collectively build the organisation’s resilience during turbulent times. It is akin to a tree: it must grow upwards towards the sunlight (serving the business), while also sinking deep roots to withstand storms (ensuring compliance).

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about? Why is this?

My passion lies in “building a high-performing legal team”. I firmly believe that in the fast-paced FMCG sector, an agile, business-savvy legal team is a core competitive advantage. Therefore, I’m committed to developing team members not just as legal experts, but as true “business partners”. I encourage job rotation to deeply understand supply chains, marketing, and sales channels. Outside work, I love gardening, which teaches me the importance of strong roots and the value of long-termism – whether nurturing plants or building a great brand, it requires patient, meticulous cultivation and respect for natural rhythms.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

Our principle is “internalise core competencies, outsource specialised expertise”. High-frequency, routine contracts, advisory work, and consumer disputes are handled in-house for efficiency and cost control. However, for highly specialised matters or geographically dispersed complex litigation, we engage external experts. When evaluating external law firms, beyond expertise and cost, we prioritise their understanding of the FMCG business logic and pace. We require them to provide not lengthy legal opinions, but clear, actionable business solutions. Our evaluation metrics are directly tied to case outcomes, achievement of business objectives, and budget adherence.