Team size: 22   

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?

Focus on staying on top of evolving regulations in the APAC region that I’m responsible for and in the U.S. (the firm’s headquarters), particularly in the areas of sanctions, financial services compliance, data privacy and information security, and ensuring that we adopt the right approach for managing legal and compliance risks which also fits our business needs. Also, proactively assess risks in cross-border transactions and align with market practice and regulatory updates. Lastly, help my team develop their expertise and broaden their skillset, and talent retention. 

What is the biggest shift you have seen in the role of General Counsel in the past five years, and how do you see it evolving further?

From being a legal advisor/problem solver to playing a broader role in developing business strategy/managing geopolitical risk, shaping workplace culture, and corroborating more closely with other corporate functions to address a myriad of challenges. 

What is one leadership principle or practice that has had the greatest impact on your career as a GC?

It’s hard to pick one practice that has the greatest impact on my career as a GC, and here are a few things that I think are important:

Building my credibility/profile as a trusted advisor and problem-solver; someone who can lead/collaborate across functions, resolve conflicts to get to a collective resolution. Effective communication and the ability to distil complex issues and provide clear guidance. Support the growth of my team members, being able to help them learn, while also learning from them.

Vincent Ng

General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs

Klook

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?

Operating in the travel industry, our experience has been enriched with both opportunities and challenges that shaped our growth in the past decade. These uncertainties require us to adapt quickly to shifting market conditions. Having navigated through the pandemic, we are made to understand the importance of agility and adapting fast. Since the pandemic, the organisation has undergone changes with focuses in different areas, for example, most recently in event tourism such as mega sports or entertainment events. What our legal team aims to achieve is to be highly aligned with the business and be part of the team that develops the products and manages the risk from the very beginning of each project. The seat at the table means the legal team can ripe the fruit of success together with the business team, while sharing the learnings along the way as business partners.

How do you balance being a legal risk manager with being a strategic business enabler, and where do you see the biggest tensions?

While the legal team acknowledges the importance of being the risk manager and moral compass of the company, we take our role as business enablers no less seriously. As a consumer business, “customer first” is a mindset that is embedded in every aspect of our operations. For the legal team, we endeavour to treat our internal customers right with the same rigour as we do for external customers. To deepen this approach, our customer service team has been invited to deliver different trainings to our legal team, with the aim of sharing skills and best practices that allow us to win the trust of and resolve conflicts with our internal clients, and which in turn empowers them in their work with external customers.