About

Prior to Gabriele Beckmann joining Weener Plastic Packaging, a legal department had been non-existent and it was her task to build it from scratch and develop it into the well-oiled instrument it is now. Apart from her role as general counsel, she also dedicates time to specific M&A, corporate and patent matters. She’s proved valuable during the company’s long ongoing phase of expansion, its sale to a private equity investor in 2012 and the consequent worldwide acquisition programme. To meet the challenge, Beckmann reallocated tasks and restructured and grew teams covering each relevant subject matter. A particular highlight has been the aforementioned private equity transaction where Beckmann was responsible for the legal and insurance due diligence, as well as for the financial due diligence. The wake of this transaction has brought other challenges in the two following years, among them due diligence proceedings in the Netherlands, India, Brasil and Turkey, including the enormous task of ensuring the new entity’s integration into the existing structure. Beckmann masterfully navigated a wide range of legal frameworks in several non-European countries and emphasises that in many cases ‘the precise judgement of the other party’s mentality leads to a successful deal closure’. Beckmann has also led two refinancing programmes, each amounting to a three digit million-euro figure, including the tax and business administrative aspects which required for her to ‘familiarise myself with non-legal business areas’. Beckmann values in her role the ability to ‘develop novel solutions for new challenges in a range of areas and countries’ while working with ‘people from a variety of backgrounds and mentalities from all over the world’.