Team size: Five in India

What are the most significant cases, projects or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?  

My recent focus has centered on balancing high-stakes transactional risk with robust governance improvements. On the transactional side, I led the legal support for the multi-billion Euro C295 India Programme, strategically managing risk and complex negotiations related to the split industrial execution (Fly-Away versus Make in India) and mitigating significant financial exposure from supply chain delays through active contractual re-scoping and management of multi-million Euro Offset Obligations. Concurrently, I drove systemic improvements in our compliance and governance structure by championing a company-wide Ethics & Compliance (E&C) best practice initiative. This involved translating lessons learned from major transactions, like C295, into mandatory internal processes—specifically, by enforcing a best practice requiring earlier cross-functional engagement from Export Control and Technology Officers to successfully process time-critical licenses and by hard-coding new anti-corruption and audit rights into all major contracts, thereby significantly raising the governance bar across our regional operations.”

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

My strategy for managing legal risk during global instability focuses on maintaining legal control across all 5 regions  (appx 188 countries. This begins by reinforcing the core global compliance policies to ensure non-negotiable legal standards are met everywhere. I prioritise activating our local counsel network to guarantee immediate legal advice and availability in any crisis market. We proactively integrate legal insights into the organisation’s risk models to anticipate legal threats from geopolitical or regulatory shifts. Ultimately, my role is to ensure the executive team has clear, objective legal counsel to protect the company’s ethical standing and resilience.

Given the current geopolitical shifts and growing uncertainties around international free trade, has your company’s risk profile evolved, and are you taking measures to address these challenges?

Given the geopolitical shifts, our company’s risk profile has fundamentally evolved to focus on securing our global supply chain, where up to 80% of an aircraft is sourced. We are aggressively mitigating two key areas: First, we treat rising tariffs and trade uncertainties as a fluid, financial risk, using legal strategies to either structurally minimise the cost burden or achieve risk-abated cost pass-throughs. Second, and critically, we ensure operational resilience by enforcing a pervasive Export Control (EC) culture and absolute adherence to sanctions. This is achieved by embedding dedicated EC resources within my legal teams across all regions and implementing a mandatory multi-functional team (Legal, EC, Supply Chain) to meticulously map the flow of components, ensuring that necessary licenses are secured and no manufacturing or delivery timelines are affected by geopolitical restrictions.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about? Why is this?

The professional cause I am most passionate about is transforming the Legal Function from a traditional gatekeeper into a Strategic Business Architect—a true partner that sits at the strategy table. This means moving beyond “just do lawyering” and prioritising commercial savvy and risk abatement over simple legal review. My team’s value is derived from deeply knowing the product, the industrial structure, and the deals, which is why I enforce a mandate to spend time understanding the business—because legal advice is pointless otherwise. By integrating our holistic view of risk, compliance, and structure upfront, we are able to provide meeting-ready solutions and viable pathways that drive growth and resilience, positioning Legal as an indispensable part of achieving competitive advantage.