Head of sustainability, APAC | Societe Generale
Head of sustainability | Axiata
General counsel and head of ESG | Growtheum Capital Partners
Chief sustainability officer | Singtel
Head of legal and company secretary | YTL PowerSeraya
Managing director, general counsel and chief compliance officer, head of ESG | Azalea Investment Management
Head of new technologies and sustainability | PSA
General counsel | Borouge
General counsel for SEAK, Japan and India | EssilorLuxottica
General counsel and executive director | Coca-Cola Beverages Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei
Head of legal and compliance, APAC, Middle East and Africa | KONE
Global vice president, strategy SAP sustainability engineering | SAP
Legal counsel, legal and compliance, sustainability and CSR | Mitsubishi Corporation RtM International
Sustainability officer | inft
Lead data center counsel APAC | Google
Head of legal, sustainable finance | Standard Chartered Bank
Senior legal counsel | UPC Renewables Vietnam
Regional legal counsel | ERM: Environmental Resources Management
Counsel | ACEN
General counsel | Grab
General counsel, APAC | EDP Renewables
Lead counsel (projects and compliance), APAC | Blueleaf Energy
Executive counsel, head of litigation | Kuok Singapore
Vice president, group legal | Olam
Head of legal and regulatory | ACEN
Senior legal director, APAC and India | Firmenich
Head of legal | Crédit Agricole
Head of legal | edotco Group
Chief sustainability officer | UOB
Lead counsel, APAC compliance and data privacy | WSAudiology
Chief sustainability officer | City Developments
General counsel and group company secretary | Pavilion Energy
Chief sustainability officer | Singapore Airlines Engineering Company
Managing associate general counsel | HSBC
Assistant managing director, development and international and chief sustainability officer | Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
General counsel | Cuscaden Peak Investments
Group chief sustainability officer | CIMB Group
Legal executive | Sembcorp Industries
Group chief sustainability officer | DBS Bank
Legal counsel, solar trade | BayWa r.e. APAC
Chief sustainability officer | SGX
Head of legal and compliance | GreenYellow Asia
Chief legal counsel, Southeast Asia | Louis Dreyfus Company
Senior legal counsel | Siemens Gamesa
SVP, Chief Sustainability Officer | DBS Bank
Regional lead, Southeast Asia, global sustainability policy and partnerships | Boeing Global
Assistant general counsel, regional counsel, APAC | FMC Corporation
Legal counsel | TotalEnergies Renewables Distributed Generation
Group general counsel, chief sustainability officer and company secretary | Jardine Cycle & Carriage
Corporate sustainability officer | Wilmar International
General counsel | Bridgin Power
General counsel | Prime Road Power
Vice president and head of sustainability | Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)
Head of compliance, pharma, APAC | Roche Singapore
Regional legal director, ASEAN | Reckitt
Vice president, legal counsel | Brookfield Asset Management
Associate general counsel | McKinsey & Company
ESG and sustainability - group legal and compliance | DBS Bank
Assistant general counsel | Asian Development Bank
General counsel, Asia | Schlumberger
Legal and compliance | Temasek Trust
General counsel, Asia | Siemens Energy
Chairman, CSR committee for sustainable development | Siam Cement Group
Deputy chief ethics and compliance officer, senior director and associate general counsel | VMware
Contract and commercial senior executive | ERS Energy
Legal manager | Golden ABC
Chief sustainability officer | Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad
Chief sustainability officer | Hong Leong Asia
General counsel, Asia Pacific | Amcor
Corporate sustainability officer | Bumitama Agri
Head of legal Singapore, Malaysia and Australasia | TMF Group
General counsel, assistance services worldwide and chief privacy officer | International SOS
Director group legal and compliance | Far East Organization
Corporate sustainability officer | APRIL Group
Legal lead and board member, Bottling Investments Group | The Coca-Cola Company
Senior manager, environmental sustainability | Changi Airport
Chief sustainability officer | CapitaLand
Director and head, sustainability and investment management operations | Principal Asset Management
Legal director | Envision Digital
Legal manager | TNB Renewables
Chief operating officer and general counsel, Asia Pacific | Aquila Capital
Head of ethics and compliance, MOAI (Asia Pacific) | Ericsson
General counsel, APAC | Bolloré Logistics
Chief sustainability officer | Monde Nissin
Group head of legal | ESR
Vice president, managing legal counsel | Fluence
Head of international legal supply chain and ESG CoE | Dell Technologies
Director, senior counsel and head of ESG | Maxeon Solar Technologies
General counsel, East Asia zone | Schneider Electric
Head of sustainability and government relations | Nestlé
Lead counsel | Meta
Senior specialist compliance and ESG risk | Telenor
Head of legal | Wind Energy
Legal counsel | Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage
Legal specialist | EVNPECC3
Group chief sustainability and communications officer | RHB Banking Group
Head, group sustainability division | FGV Holdings
Group chief sustainability and communications officer | Gamuda
Chief sustainability officer | Frasers
General manager | MAREA
Group chief sustainability officer | Malaysia Aviation Group
Senior corporate counsel | Singapore Airlines
Legal counsel | Hitachi Energy
Chief sustainability officer | GIC
Chief sustainability officer | Sime Darby Plantation
Corporate secretary and ESG division head | Siloam Hospitals Group
Chief sustainability officer | Meralco
Legal manager | Engie
Head of Legal and Ethics | ENGIE Services (Philippines)
General counsel and chief compliance officer | TLC Industries
General counsel, Asia-Pacific region | Schroders
General counsel | Vena Energy
Head of legal, Asia Pacific | BayWa r.e. APAC
Executive director, head of CxG | Creador
Regional counsel Southeast Asia, ANZ, Japan and Korea | Agilent Technologies Singapore
Head, Southeast Asia green finance hub | Asian Development Bank
ESG group compliance and regulatory lead | UBS
Deputy head of legal, Singapore | Lendlease
Chief sustainability officer | Maybank
Senior legal counsel global operations | Ansell
General counsel | Berkeley Energy Group
Assistant general counsel | Citi
Head of legal operations, APAC and China, senior director | GEA Group
Associate general counsel | Aquila Capital
Group general counsel | Carsome
Chief sustainability officer | Temasek Holdings
Chief ESG officer | SusallWave
Senior vice president, data privacy and sustainability | GIC
Group head, sustainability | GoTo Group
Head of legal and compliance | Rabobank
Sustainability manager | Banyan Tree Samui and Banyan Tree Krabi
Legal manager | B.Grimm
Senior legal counsel | The Clermont Group
Chief sustainability officer | Keppel Corporation
Senior vice president, chief sustainable business development | Thai Beverages
Chief legal officer | TTC GROUP
Legal manager | Super Energy Corporation
Senior legal counsel | LONGi Solar
Co-founder and chief sustainability officer | Aruna
In-house counsel | Hastings Technology Metals
Chief corporate and sustainability officer, general counsel | StarHub
Head of legal | Cenergi SEA Berhad
Head of sustainability | Ayala Corporation
Senior corporate counsel - environmental law, sustainability and regulatory compliance, APAC | Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Senior vice president corporate planning and chief sustainability officer | Singapore Airlines
Director of sustainability | Thai Union
Chief sustainability officer | Air Asia
Head of compliance, sustainability and legal | PT Sri Rejeki Isman Tbk (SRITEX)
Director of compliance and ESG | Telenor
As the GC Powerlist series grows, we look to create editions that highlight individuals who excel in areas we may not have shone a light on until this point. With impending climate change looming over all of us, and our interviews over recent years showing conclusively just how important in-house lawyers can be in driving change in their organisations, a Green GC Powerlist was an obvious new avenue to examine. As for where to target, Southeast Asia was the perfect choice given the huge and continuing investment in renewable energy, the great quality of the individuals here, and the appetite of the major corporations to commit to sustainability initiatives.
We realised early on that we had to go even further than we would usually to create a list that is truly representative. On advice from the in-house lawyers we spoke to during the opening round of interviews, we decided to expand the scope of the project further to take into account the Sustainability Officers and other businesspeople who are doing so much to advance Green initiatives in Southeast Asia. Certainly a first for our research team!
The interviews we did were illuminating. ‘As lawyers, we are well-placed to chart our organisations’ respective journeys through the ‘alphabet soup’ of ESG factors, operating from an accountability lens to accurately measure the impact of our corporate behaviours’, says Maree Myerscough, chief operating officer and general counsel of Aquila Clean Energy, a view shared by Hong Teong Goh, chief legal officer, Louis Dreyfus Company Asia: ‘Many initiatives today, especially those related to ESG, must be embedded at the very heart of corporate strategy and business function buy-ins. In-house lawyers play a key role in guiding new policies that are in the best interests of the company, working with its different departments to support solutions derived from a broad perspective of the organisation.’
Highlighting the high degree of synergy between CSOs and GCs, Susana Lim, vice president sustainability and data privacy of GIC, echoed these statements. ‘The global pace of developments in sustainability regulations has been nothing short of frenetic’, she explains. ‘In-house lawyers play an important role in keeping the company abreast of these developments, whether in relation to the company’s reporting obligations, sustainability-related regulations, or the trends in climate litigation and greenwashing claims.’
Kristian Nico Calugay Acosta, legal manager of Golden ABC in the Philippines, urged a degree of caution in terms of how to assess how sustainable – or not – a company is. ‘The nexus between sustainable innovation and environmental advocacy is usually left out (or disregarded) when discussing how green a company is’, he theorises. ‘It is not enough to internally innovate corporate policies and procedures to make a company green. Companies must also publicly advocate for ESG to raise environmental awareness among its clients, consumers or target markets.’
Many thanks to all the inspiring general counsel, in-house lawyers and sustainability officers who spoke to either myself or Francisco Castro for this milestone project, and congratulations on being selected to join this elite group who are doing so much to create a more renewable world for us all.
Joe Boswell
Global Editor – Powerlist Series
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Francisco Castro
Research Analyst
The Green GC Powerlist marks perhaps the most radical new endeavour in the GC Powerlist series up to this point, as we seek to highlight in-house lawyers who have done the most to forward sustainability and renewability initiatives. During the course of researching for the Powerlist, we realised it was imperative to go further than simply looking at in house lawyers; as such, prominent sustainability officers also appeared on the list, with many well-renowned individuals making the cut and in attendance on the evening.
As for where to target first for a Green GC Powerlist edition, Southeast Asia was the perfect choice given the huge and continuing investment in renewable energy across the region, the great quality of the individuals here, and the appetite of the major corporations to commit to sustainability initiatives.
Fort Canning Hotel was chosen for its location in the middle of the lush Fort Canning Park, and made for an excellent and fitting backdrop to the reception. Turnout was exceptional, with over 200 individuals in attendance, all waiting in anticipation for the award ceremony and speeches from the guest of honour, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore Grace Fu, and Rajah & Tann Singapore Managing Partner Patrick Ang.
Global editor for The Legal 500’s Powerlist series, Joe Boswell, kicked off proceedings with a welcome speech and hearty congratulations to everyone who made it on to the Green GC Powerlist, whether in attendance or not. Patrick Ang to the podium to echo the congratulations and pledge Rajah & Tann’s support for sustainability initiatives across Southeast Asia.
The guest of honour, Grace Fu, then delivered the main speech of the evening and displayed her effortless charisma, stage command and wit
