What are the key projects you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Over the last twelve months, until 31 May 2026, I have worked on expanding BCB Group’s geographical and regulatory footprint by adding key crypto and payments licences in Europe and Middle East as well as exploring new geographical expansion opportunities.

How has the role of general counsel evolved, and what are the most important attributes for the modern in-house lawyer?

The general counsel role has consolidated. Budget constraints and uncertain economic growth mean the days of separate head of legal, chief legal officer and GC functions are largely gone at SMEs and scale-ups. The expectation now is one person covering all three, often with a smaller team than the mandate would suggest five years ago. That shift has changed what “good” looks like in the role.

The most important attribute is no longer legal expertise alone — that’s assumed. It’s the ability to prioritise ruthlessly and make judgment calls on where legal risk genuinely threatens the business versus where it’s manageable in the background. When you’re covering strategy, compliance, contracts and regulatory relationships with a fraction of the resources a larger legal function would have, you cannot treat every matter with equal weight. Knowing which fights to have and which to let go is now core to the job, not a nice-to-have.

The second is commercial fluency. A modern GC has to sit close enough to the business to understand where it’s actually trying to go, so legal advice shapes strategy rather than reacting to it after the fact. That’s harder to do with less headcount, which makes efficient use of the team — and, increasingly, of AI for the mechanical parts of the job — a genuine differentiator rather than a luxury.

The GCs who are thriving in this environment aren’t the ones trying to do everything the old three-role structure required. They’re the ones who’ve been honest about what to stop doing, so they can do the rest well.

Beyond your legal role, is there a cause or initiative you are especially passionate about?

Beyond the legal work itself, I’m genuinely passionate about change and transformation leadership — specifically, what it means to lead people well when nothing around them is stable.

I’ve led teams through the pandemic and lockdowns, two wars, ongoing geopolitical turmoil and two full crypto winters and bull runs in between. Each of those periods asked something different of the people I was responsible for, and none of them came with a playbook. What I’ve learned is that leadership in uncertainty isn’t about having the answers — it’s about how you show up for your team while you’re figuring them out.

I’m a strong believer in servant leadership, and Simon Sinek’s work has shaped a lot of my thinking here: the idea that a leader’s job is to protect and serve the people doing the work, especially when conditions are hardest. I try to bring that into how I run legal teams: leading with empathy, absorbing pressure rather than passing it down and treating change as something to guide people through, not just manage around.

That’s the kind of leader I want to be known as, well beyond any title.