As the head of legal innovation for Telefónica Digital, Oscar Casado reports to the global director of legal affairs and digital legal transformation and leads support from a legal and regulatory point of view surrounding the digital transformation of both Telefónica and its subsidiary Tuenti. Casado was involved in the merger by absorption of Tuenti Technologies by Telefónica when it took place in 2016.

A large part of his work includes advising the group on its unique and pioneering digital global products that are exported to Telefónica customers around the world, by creating a new digital relationship of trust with them based on security, transparency and control over data and with user privacy at the centre in order to drive digital confidence. Casado explains that he is working ‘at the cutting edge of lots of incredible innovations and new ways to communicate and connect that also generate legal issues not yet covered by regulation. This is my challenge; helping my company navigate complicated legal and regulatory issues we face now and in the near future. This involves taking risks to meet business objectives, but this can only be done successfully with a thorough understanding of the risk appetite of the business involved’.

In terms of internal legal support he has introduced a lean methodology for in-house lawyers called “legal by design” acting as a ‘working glue’ to product development teams working alongside colleagues in other teams, applying agile legal project management methodologies to follow product tracks in parallel with the legal function to set clear priorities and goals aligned with the rest of the business areas. Incredibly passionate about digital influence and the business, Casado frequently contributes within the community through a number of related initiatives. He promoted the start-up Europe leaders club, an independent group of founders in the field of tech, entrepreneurship, acting as role models for European web entrepreneurs and providing guidance to the European commission on what needs to be done to strengthen the environment for web entrepreneurs to start in Europe. Casado is the co-author of the manifesto for the entrepreneurship and innovation to power growth in the European Union.