In an increasingly complex global environment, how are you helping your organisation navigate risk while still supporting growth?

I operate at the intersection of regulatory complexity and commercial ambition in one of the world’s fastest-growing industries – fintech.

My role is to help the organisation navigate risk without killing momentum. We actively monitor legal and compliance risks across over 150 jurisdictions globally, including financial regulation, consumer, marketing, employment and operations.

My philosophy is that Legal should be a strategic business enabler, not a gatekeeper. When evaluating new product launches or partnership opportunities, I focus on structuring solutions that manage risk exposure while preserving commercial speed. This has built trust with stakeholders, so we influence strategy early on, not just at the implementation stage.

Enabling growth does not mean saying ‘yes’ to everything. For example, we have paused market expansion at times until we have resolved a critical risk gap. This was not blocking growth; it was protecting our ability to grow sustainably. The result? We launched slightly later with confidence and no enforcement surprises.

How has the role of General Counsel evolved in recent years, and where do you see GCs creating the most value today?

The GC role has transformed more than almost any other C-suite position in recent years. Traditionally, GCs were seen as the chief ‘risk mitigator’ and manager of outside counsel. Today, GCs have become top strategists, joining executive boards and leading functions well beyond legal, such as compliance, public policy, licensing, internal controls and operations.

I see GCs creating the most value in two specific areas:

First, early-stage strategy formation. The greatest value comes from preventing legal blind spots before they become crises, not cleaning up afterwards. This means GCs need a seat at the table when products, markets and partnerships are first conceived.

Second, scaling legal operations via technology. GCs who effectively deploy AI and automation can free their teams from high-volume, low-complexity work, enabling focus on the strategic decisions that actually move the business.

Beyond these two areas, the broader shift is that GCs are now expected to proactively shape strategy and culture, not just advise on business decisions. Board-level reliance and early consultation are the clearest signs that our value is being recognised at the most senior level, and that is why the GC role is increasingly a pathway to broader executive leadership.

How has AI changed the legal function recently (including in the past year), and how are you approaching it within your team?

In the past year, AI has shifted our Legal function from experimentation into tangible execution. After trialling several leading products, we implemented those that delivered clear value, transforming contract reviews, accelerating risk identification and enabling increased research efficiency via generative AI tools integrated into our internal intranet.

Crucially, AI enabled process re-engineering. For example, we built a self-service contracts system for low-value, low-risk agreements, freeing our lawyers to focus on complex, impactful work — this has resulted in 20% of all contracts being self-serviced. We also deployed an internal FAQ chatbot to reduce routine stakeholder questions.

We take a proactive but governed approach. The goal is to increase efficiency and augment legal judgement, not replace it.

Our focus this year is continuous improvement, including monitoring existing tools, refining workflows and identifying new AI adoption areas. This approach recently earned our team the LexisNexis ELITE Legal Team Award in 2025, recognising our contributions to legal innovation and technology.