About

‘We are leading ourselves, our department and our business with vision. That vision is to become a high performing team of leaders and strategic business partners and the number one in our industry’, explains Tanya Jaeger de Foras, vice president of Whirlpool Corporation and chief legal officer EMEA. Acting as the most senior lawyer for the EMEA region of global white goods manufacturer Whirlpool, and leading a team of over 70 people spanning lawyers, regulatory affairs specialists and paralegals, De Foras joined the company in 2015 and has managed the team since. She explains the nature of the legal department as including ‘specialists in competition law, sales and marketing, contracts and commercial, corporate governance, labour, intellectual property, dispute resolution and compliance’. The 2014 acquisition of Indesit by Whirlpool Corporation had an effect on the legal structure at the company, but is, as De Foras explains – ‘more than the simple combination of the prior law departments’, and the newly organised team has the mission to ‘seek to be more than a service function of technical experts and strive to be both strategic business partners and guardians of the corporation’. At the forefront of Whirlpool’s business in the area of commercial sales, the EMEA legal team was a ‘central player’ in the rollout of new models for commercial sales across the region, owing to the success of these models they are now ‘being deployed globally, and members of our team are playing strategic roles as legal advisors and project managers’. The team’s utility as embedded business partners is clear, and further example of their quality in this sense can be seen in the ‘several major projects and enterprise level risk matters’ in Italy and other EMEA jurisdictions. De Foras’ highlights in this respect include ‘the post-acquisition integration of Indesit into Whirlpool Europe (more than 40 markets and two hundred legal entities), comprehensive antitrust and general business ethics compliance programs and investigations, managing a global heritage product safety issue and recall stemming from the Indesit acquisition as well as related litigation and claims’. Noted members of the team include Tanya Jaeger de Foras for her role in elevating the team which means they now have a seat at the table with the business, as well as Isabella Gonzalez, EMEA director of ethics and compliance – who has brought ‘operational excellence and significant international compliance expertise’ to the company. Stefan De Jonghe, legal director EMEA sales and marketing supports the sales organisation across EMEA, building a team ‘of talents and leaders and instilled a culture of legal excellence, risk management and business partnership’ according to De Foras. De Jonghe oversees a team of 15 lawyers and two non-lawyers that includes seven new hires in the past two years, which has combined to build up a ‘strong EMEA-wide competition law risk management system’ according to De Jonghe. Having a strictly business minded legal remit, his team’s work has been crucial in the implementation of ‘a legally sound commercial policy for our sales organisation’ as well as providing assistance on a ‘global rework campaign for one of our products’. Reporting into the general managers of their respective countries across EMEA, the team’s contribution is summed up as a legal department that is a ‘highly motivated team of business oriented lawyers who drive the company’s strategy and protect the company’.