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?

China Wantian Holdings is an investment holding company. The group is mainly engaged in three key businesses: green food supply, green catering and environmental protection technology. The group has successfully expanded Hong Kong’s food supply chain business to the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area market. In the meanwhile, the entire green food industry chain is being deployed at full speed to provide customers with fresh, healthy and safe food, and is committed to becoming China’s leading better life service provider.

In the current international political and economic climate, the group finds itself in a state of crisis. As the chief legal and compliance officer and strategic investment director, I will adjust the focus of legal and compliance initiatives in response to evolving external conditions and the company’s strategic shifts. Besides offering standard legal risk and compliance recommendations, I will enhance the protection of intellectual property, analyse investment benefits, refine internal control processes, address integrity risks, and advance ESG initiatives to safeguard the group against sanctions and to protect the interests of the board and management. 

What is the most difficult decision you’ve had to make as a GC, and what lessons did it teach you?

In fact, I am responsible for both legal and compliance work and investment affairs. The most difficult and challenging decision is to balance the relationship between business development and compliance, to improve the company’s performance while preventing risks. In this process, I can learn a lot of business and investment and financing knowledge, understand the way of thinking of business personnel, and at the same time, I can instil legal and compliance knowledge to business personnel to improve their risk prevention capabilities.

What do you see as the biggest challenge or opportunity for in-house legal teams in 2025, and how are you preparing for it?

By 2025, with the evolution of the external economic landscape and innovations in AI technology, internal legal teams will face significant challenges that require proactive self-improvement. They must learn to leverage AI technologies to enhance daily legal management, improve efficiency, and streamline workflows. This necessitates a fundamental shift from traditional working methodologies and mindsets to adapt to the evolving external environment, thereby strengthening their competitive edge.