Career Biography

Katsuhiko Kondo possesses three decades of extensive expertise in Japanese corporate law and currently serves as the Group General Counsel for a major global logistics holding company. Throughout his distinguished career, he has successfully steered complex cross-border transactions, orchestrated post-merger integrations (PMI) and architected resilient global corporate governance frameworks within highly regulated industries.

As a visionary legal executive, Mr. Kondo consistently drives the evolution of the legal function from a traditional, risk-averse gatekeeper into a proactive, strategic business enabler. He has seamlessly integrated decentralised regional legal operations into a unified global network that directly advances overarching corporate strategies. A defining initiative under his leadership is the pioneering development of a “strategic intelligence platform” powered by Generative AI. By automating routine workflows and embedding advanced data analytics, this transformation optimises global legal operations into an efficient, data-driven function, empowering in-house counsel to focus on high-value strategic decision-making and preventative risk management.

While leading this cutting-edge digital transformation, Mr. Kondo maintains a steadfast philosophy that the ultimate foundation of any global enterprise resides in its people. Grounded in the principles of human capital management, he remains deeply committed to prioritising the human element within corporate governance. He views the continuous harmonisation of technological advancement with human-centric leadership and empathy in global legal operations as his most vital and compelling ongoing mission. What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Restructuring the global legal network and advancing AI integration has been a key project. Over the past two years, following a major organisational transition to a holding company system, I have spearheaded the restructuring of our global legal network. I established a robust framework based on a dual-reporting line system between the holding company and our worldwide subsidiaries, completing a structure that enables unified global legal operations. Building upon this foundation, I am currently developing a system to utilise generative AI to make these unified operations more effective, efficient and specialised. This project is scheduled for completion within 2026. For our global logistics group, with annual sales exceeding ¥2 trillion, I am evolving the legal function from a traditional risk-management unit into a “strategic intelligence platform” that fuses organisational strength with AI.