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

I see my role as helping FWD navigate risk in a way that supports sustainable growth. That means identifying and escalating legal issues early, advising on the legal implications of strategic initiatives, and working closely with stakeholders across the business, so that risks are understood and managed before key decisions are made. To be brought into conversations early, I have spent years building trust and confidence of the business, both at Group level and also just as importantly, at Business Unit level.

That trust allows the legal function to help design initiatives from the outset, implementing a ‘legal by design’ approach across the organisation, whether it be in AI, data protection, distribution partnerships, reinsurance, or risk and compliance matters.

A key part of that is taking a holistic view of risk. Today, the legal landscape is shaped not only by traditional legal and regulatory issues, but also by developments in new and emerging areas. Our role is to help the business respond to those developments in a practical and commercially minded way, whilst concurrently managing stakeholders, the board and regulators.

At the same time, I am focused on enabling growth. FWD is a young, fast-growing business that pride itself on being legacy-light and not being hindered by bureaucracy and clunky systems. Innovation, speed and entrepreneurship is part of our DNA. That means that our legal team needs to be creative – doing more with less – to support strategic initiatives and innovation, while ensuring we have the right governance, people, processes and controls in place.

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

I believe the role of General Counsel has evolved from being viewed primarily as the company’s senior legal adviser to a much broader strategic leadership role.

Today, GCs are expected not only to advise on technical legal questions (which is a given), but also to advise the company, the Board and senior stakeholders, and bring a strong commercial lens to that advice to make judgement calls to enable business decisions to be made efficiently and effectively, whilst implementing appropriate guardrails to protect the company.

Where GCs create the most value today is at the intersection of strategy, governance and risk. Instead of creating obstacles and obstructions, we work in tandem with the commercial teams to devise an appropriate way forward, navigating and mitigating legal constraints, in line with our risk appetite, in a transparent way whilst keeping stakeholders’ interests aligned.

I believe GCs are most impactful when involved early in business discussions and strategic deliberations, helping to shape decisions before risks crystallise, rather than reviewing matters only at the end of the process. In order to do that, GCs must obtain and secure the trust of senior stakeholders, and consider strategic priorities when recommending solutions.

A key part of this is through supporting the board by implementing good governance processes and enterprise risk management, particularly as businesses face increasing complexity, including around AI and new technologies, cybersecurity, privacy, changing regulations and cross-border operations. Directors are increasingly concerned about emerging risks that new technologies and new strategies may present and GCs need to be sufficiently broad in approach to cover such emerging complex issues.

How do you build and maintain a strong legal team?

I have built and maintained a strong legal team by being intentional about culture, clarity, development and resilience. From the outset, I focused on creating a clear operating model and vision for the legal function, while also developing and elevating senior members of the team into broader leadership roles.

For me, culture is the foundation. I lead by example. Our vision has been to build a high-performing, commercially oriented team that embraces innovation and technology, operational efficiency and collaboration, emphasising collegiality, clear communication, trust and safety.

I give people room to grow. That means broadening their scope to increase engagement and empowerment, creating development opportunities and encouraging continuous learning and leadership, so that my team can build confidence, capability and judgement over time. Giving my team, at every level, access to senior management gives them a stronger sense of accountability and purpose, so they can recognise that their work is contributing to a broader strategic outcome.

Just as importantly, I am thoughtful in my approach to structure and resourcing, which includes succession planning, handovers and identifying areas where there is little contingency. We do not have endless resources, so we have to be creative to do more with less, which creates challenges but is even more rewarding when we achieve successes.

I am very proud of my team and what we have achieved over the years. We’ve navigated significant projects including implementation of a new group wide supervision regulatory regime and FWD’s Hong Kong listing, while continuing to manage day-to-day advisory work and multiple transactions at the same time.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the main opportunity or challenge for in-house legal teams?

As the world becomes more complex and connected, legal teams need to be at the forefront of innovation and business decisions.

I believe the biggest opportunity for in-house legal teams in this region is, therefore, to become true strategic enablers of growth, particularly as businesses expand their use of new technologies, including AI, data and digital tools across multiple jurisdictions. FWD operates in 10 markets, including in Southeast Asia which encompasses emerging markets, developing economies with a growing middle class, where regulatory regimes often change and business risks are heightened.

This backdrop clearly presents challenges for us as well – we need to be proactive in approach and quickly recognise and grasp new risks and legal issues.

As such, I believe effective legal teams will not simply interpret rules and regulations; we will proactively help shape decisions early and be part of the design at the outset, allowing us to form strategy and approach, building practical governance frameworks and translating complex regulatory change into clear actions for the business.

For me, a successful and effective legal team will be one that combines sharp legal judgement and technical knowledge with commerciality, operational discipline and technology, so that legal is a trusted business partner in sustainable growth across the whole organisation.