Team size: Five

Matina Kresta is a distinguished senior legal executive with over two decades of experience driving corporate governance, legal excellence and strategic transformation across the pharmaceutical, FMCG, and energy sectors. Currently serving as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer and Leadership Team member at Roche Hellas SA, Matina leads the Legal & Compliance Center, embedding integrity directly into core business strategy to advance patient access to transformative medicines and breakthrough healthcare innovation.

Recognised as a visionary leader, Matina champions Legal & Compliance as proactive drivers of sustainable business growth and long-term value creation. In 2025, she was honoured as Ethics & Compliance Manager of the Year, while leading her team to top national recognitions at the Compliance Awards, including Best Compliance Team in the Pharmaceutical Sector and Best Compliance Team (across all sectors). Her strategic approach focuses on co-creating ethical frameworks with external stakeholders, navigating complex regulatory landscapes and transforming compliance into a true competitive advantage and force for societal impact.

Prior to joining Roche in 2020, Matina served as General Counsel at Delta Foods SA (VIVARTIA Group), where she built the internal legal department from the ground up, optimised operational workflows and oversaw major corporate transactions, cross-border expansions and high-stakes litigation. She began her career at BP Hellas SA, managing complex commercial agreements, real estate negotiations and data privacy.

Matina holds a Law degree and postgraduate credentials in Civil Law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, an Executive MBA and MSc in Business Studies from ALBA Graduate Business School, and specialised training in Data, Law, Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics (LSE). She is a qualified lawyer before the Supreme Court, a member of the Athens Bar Association, and an active member of the Association of Compliance Officers in Greece.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure organisational resilience?

In the healthcare and life sciences sector, instability is rarely an isolated event; it is an ongoing reality. As European nations grapple with budget pressures and economic stagnation, the healthcare policy decisions made today carry immediate human and financial weight, directly impacting patient care and Europe’s long-term competitiveness. In this high-stakes environment where no patient can afford the luxury of delay, regulatory trends are not abstract; they dictate how fast a life-changing therapy reaches society. Managing through such volatility requires legal functions to move beyond traditional risk mitigation towards active ecosystem shaping.

In this context, my approach as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer rests on transforming the legal function from a safety net into an architect of external stability and internal resilience. Rather than simply adapting to adverse market conditions, I focus on shaping a predictable operating environment. This means engaging proactively with industry stakeholders, contributing to policy dialogues, and advocating for legal frameworks that recognise long-term strategic value over short-term containment.

True ecosystem shaping is only as effective as our internal commercial clarity. To meaningfully influence the external environment, legal strategy must be deeply embedded in the business vision from the start. By mastering our internal commercial drivers, I am able to translate complex systemic challenges—such as fiscal clawbacks, market access delays, and regulatory shifts—into targeted policy advocacy and actionable growth pathways. Ultimately, this deep alignment ensures that our external efforts directly protect enterprise continuity, safeguard investments in innovation, and reinforce my company’s standing as a trusted partner.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am deeply passionate about advocating for sustainable healthcare systems, protecting patient rights and unlocking the true value of biopharmaceutical innovation across Greece and Europe.

At its core, access to healthcare is a fundamental human right. Patients deserve timely, unhindered and equitable access to life-changing medical breakthroughs, regardless of short-term fiscal constraints. Healthcare innovation is not merely a cost centre to be contained; it is a critical driver of national resilience, economic productivity and social well-being. Every euro invested in health innovation yields multifold returns to society by enabling citizens to lead healthier lives and remain active in the economy. However, European healthcare environments—particularly in Greece—face severe pressures due to high mandatory payback mechanisms (clawbacks), regulatory delays and prolonged timelines for patient access compared to EU averages.

We must fundamentally shift how we evaluate healthcare: treating health not as an expenditure, but as foundational economic infrastructure. A resilient economy depends on a healthy population, where every breakthrough that restores a citizen’s ability to work, care for loved ones, or engage with society acts as a direct multiplier for economic productivity. Prioritising medical innovation today is essential for maintaining a competitive workforce and avoiding far higher systemic costs down the line.

As in-house counsel, I am committed to advancing legal, policy and regulatory frameworks that place patients at the centre. The legal function has a vital duty to champion transparent, predictable and value-based Health Technology Assessment (HTA) models that remove systemic delays. The legal role must actively co-create solutions with all stakeholders, establishing transparent regulations that look beyond short-term fiscal cuts and treat healthcare as an investment rather than a fiscal burden. Ultimately, a healthy economy requires a healthy society, and our mandate is to build the legal foundations that allow healthcare innovation to thrive for the benefit of both patients and the economy.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure organisational resilience?

In the healthcare and life sciences sector, instability is rarely an isolated event; it is an ongoing reality. As European nations grapple with budget pressures and economic stagnation, the healthcare policy decisions made today carry immediate human and financial weight, directly impacting patient care and Europe’s long-term competitiveness. In this high-stakes environment where no patient can afford the luxury of delay, regulatory trends are not abstract; they dictate how fast a life-changing therapy reaches society. Managing through such volatility requires legal functions to move beyond traditional risk mitigation towards active ecosystem shaping.

In this context, my approach as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer rests on transforming the legal function from a safety net into an architect of external stability and internal resilience. Rather than simply adapting to adverse market conditions, I focus on shaping a predictable operating environment. This means engaging proactively with industry stakeholders, contributing to policy dialogues, and advocating for legal frameworks that recognise long-term strategic value over short-term containment.

True ecosystem shaping is only as effective as our internal commercial clarity. To meaningfully influence the external environment, legal strategy must be deeply embedded in the business vision from the start. By mastering our internal commercial drivers, I am able to translate complex systemic challenges—such as fiscal clawbacks, market access delays, and regulatory shifts—into targeted policy advocacy and actionable growth pathways. Ultimately, this deep alignment ensures that our external efforts directly protect enterprise continuity, safeguard investments in innovation, and reinforce my company’s standing as a trusted partner.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am deeply passionate about advocating for sustainable healthcare systems, protecting patient rights and unlocking the true value of biopharmaceutical innovation across Greece and Europe.

At its core, access to healthcare is a fundamental human right. Patients deserve timely, unhindered and equitable access to life-changing medical breakthroughs, regardless of short-term fiscal constraints. Healthcare innovation is not merely a cost centre to be contained; it is a critical driver of national resilience, economic productivity and social well-being. Every euro invested in health innovation yields multifold returns to society by enabling citizens to lead healthier lives and remain active in the economy. However, European healthcare environments—particularly in Greece—face severe pressures due to high mandatory payback mechanisms (clawbacks), regulatory delays and prolonged timelines for patient access compared to EU averages.

We must fundamentally shift how we evaluate healthcare: treating health not as an expenditure, but as foundational economic infrastructure. A resilient economy depends on a healthy population, where every breakthrough that restores a citizen’s ability to work, care for loved ones, or engage with society acts as a direct multiplier for economic productivity. Prioritising medical innovation today is essential for maintaining a competitive workforce and avoiding far higher systemic costs down the line.

As in-house counsel, I am committed to advancing legal, policy and regulatory frameworks that place patients at the centre. The legal function has a vital duty to champion transparent, predictable and value-based Health Technology Assessment (HTA) models that remove systemic delays. The legal role must actively co-create solutions with all stakeholders, establishing transparent regulations that look beyond short-term fiscal cuts and treat healthcare as an investment rather than a fiscal burden. Ultimately, a healthy economy requires a healthy society, and our mandate is to build the legal foundations that allow healthcare innovation to thrive for the benefit of both patients and the economy.