Having already gained substantial IP and international experience in Asia and Africa, Céline Bourjolay made her move in-house in 2012, joining the leading software vendor Murex as a deputy general counsel in Paris. Within a year she was promoted to her current role of general counsel for the EMEA region at the company, where she has served to date. Over the last few years, Bourjolay has particularly impressed with her experience in overseeing notable commercial transactions with large capital market firms that have selected Murex to equip them with software solutions to navigate the changing capital markets landscape. Three of the most important deals negotiated during this period include the signing of a Dutch multinational bank, a Danish IT services provider (serving as a utility for 11 banks) and one of South Africa’s largest commercial banks. ‘The Dutch bank selected Murex’s MX.3 platform to provide front-to-back coverage across all asset classes,’ Bourjolay says. ‘With the aim of simplifying internal IT, complying with upcoming regulation and securing long-term business growth, this was a large-scale project that was very important to Murex. These were challenging negotiations but it was also very exciting and rewarding to be part of these projects as we were the transformation enabler for these banks and groups’. Bourjolay’s notable organisational achievements include introducing a real operational dimension to the legal function and integrating it as a link to the business processes and decisions, improving communications both within the legal teams and between legal and business functions. A professional who is said to excel in her role by maintaining a close relationship with the business and paying close attention to the ever-changing needs of various internal departments, Bourjolay strives to focus on the proactivity and reactivity of the legal team, and has cultivated a global compliance culture by improving escalation processes with the business and its decision makers.