What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

Over the past year, I have led several transformative legal initiatives designed to support operational efficiency, commercial growth, and digital transformation within MAF Retail. Key projects include: Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) implementation: we upgraded internal legal capabilities through the implementation of an end-to-end CLM system. This involved standardising contracts across multiple business categories, introducing modular agreements, and automating workflows to drive efficiency. Contract streamlining and simplification has been another key focus. A major restructuring of existing agreement templates was undertaken to improve execution speed, discipline, and risk control—without compromising governance or essential legal safeguards.

I have also been involved in the development of a business-friendly risk matrix. We rolled out a contractual risk framework that enables context-based risk assessments. This allows the business to identify key risks early and accelerate contract approval and execution timelines.

The legal function played a central role in supporting the business’s ambitious expansion into new markets, while also facilitating the acceleration of our digital and e-commerce capabilities.

We also contributed to the legal and structural set-up of the Group’s new digital business, a new retail media venture — Pinnacol — ensuring regulatory alignment and commercial readiness from day one.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Having worked in the MENA region for over 18 years, I’ve seen first-hand how instability and crisis can rapidly reshape the operating environment. Across all industries, the key to resilience lies in adopting a proactive and dynamic risk posture.

We begin with regulatory and geopolitical risk mapping, actively tracking changes in areas such as trade compliance, labour laws, competition, sanctions, tariffs, and regional tensions. Agility is essential, especially where sanctions or trade restrictions can instantly sever access to critical markets or suppliers.

We identify critical dependencies and work closely with our sourcing teams to ensure robust alternative supply chains and end-to-end supplier compliance. Our legal function remains embedded in operational strategy—contributing to crisis playbooks, ethical communication frameworks, and proactive regulatory engagement.

This shift reflects the legal team’s evolution from reactive gatekeepers to proactive enablers of strategic resilience. Flexibility in contracting, rapid response in compliance, and seamless alignment with commercial priorities all contribute to protecting both operational continuity and corporate reputation.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on, of which you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful?

One of the key trends I’ve observed, particularly from my role as a procurement and supply chain lawyer in the FMCG and retail sectors, is the increasing politicisation of global food and goods supply chains.

Take the Strait of Hormuz — a single chokepoint for critical TEU cargo including food and consumer goods. Whether due to military conflict or piracy, any disruption here has immediate implications for food security. Similarly, geopolitical instability around the Suez Canal has proven the fragility of critical trade arteries.

Military conflicts, such as those in Ukraine, Russia, and across the Middle East, have triggered sanctions and export controls that significantly impact pricing and availability. Retailers have seen examples like UK supermarkets banning products from certain regions on ethical grounds, further intertwining foreign policy with retail risk.

The legal impact? A sharp rise in force majeure disputes, increased supplier risk, and the need for more explicit contracting clauses around ESG, sanctions, and sourcing. For example, the EU’s new deforestation regulation and upcoming forced labour bans will create legal exposure unless supply chains are watertight.

Legal teams must therefore adopt a dual strategy: tighten contracts with clear provisions on product origin, sanctions, ESG, and labour practices; and collaborate cross-functionally to develop agile sourcing plans, regulatory monitoring, and response protocols.

Ultimately, legal departments must act as both strategic advisors and operational risk mitigators, ensuring businesses remain compliant, ethical and resilient in the face of ongoing geopolitical volatility.