About

With 28 people reporting to him indirectly, Dr Andre Körtgen’s broad responsibilities as head of legal and contracts and general counsel for international defence and security major Thales’ German operations are numerous and complex; the company also has substantial civil business in the country. Dr Körtgen has been at the forefront of a number of improvements to the company’s legal function since joining in 2012, but places one major internal process improvement at the top of his list. ‘Transformation of the various Thales contract management resources into a shared function is my number one highlight’, he explains, ‘since it was my first major transformation and change management project which as per today I regard as one of my major fields of expertise. Managing the expectations and aspirations of a broad range of very different individuals of whom the most were not legal professionals and working on a joint vision for a Thales contract management was a challenge but also a highly satisfying task’. As well as improvements in processes, Dr Körtgen has spent time developing the individual talent of the legal officers within the team: ‘Creating excellence within the team has been a focus of mine by selecting the best person for a certain task; since demand is changing this leads to constant re-building of the legal and contracts function, and we have to be aligned with legal colleagues all over the globe and operational colleagues in Germany on an ongoing basis’. He is clear as to what he expects all members of the legal team to achieve on a day-to-day basis in support of the company. ‘In-house counsel swim in a sea of problems, risks, information and work, and they can easily work 24 hours a day without tackling the most urgent issues’, Dr Körtgen says. ‘So it is essential that they identify where they can provide the most needed assistance and add value’.