Oona Cassidy is General Counsel and Company Secretary at Lookers. Lookers is one of the UK’s largest automotive groups with approximately GBP£4.3bn turnover across retail, leasing and fleet operations in the UK and Ireland. She is a member of the executive leadership team and plays an important role in shaping strategic direction across the business. Her remit spans Legal, Compliance, Data Privacy, Risk, Health & Safety and Internal Audit.

Her career reflects a progression from technical legal expertise to broader enterprise leadership. Having trained and qualified in private practice, she built a strong foundation in financial services litigation and undertook various secondments with major banking clients. She later transitioned into her first in-house role at the Co-op Group, partnering closely with the Insurance and Funeralcare businesses. This role provided exposure to complex regulated environments and engagement with senior leadership. In this role, she worked alongside a number of inspirational colleagues and leaders within a values driven organisation, which had a lasting influence on her leadership approach.

One of Oona’s recent key achievements includes her delivery on legal transformation, cost efficiency and improved ways of working. Since 2024, she has delivered a transformation of the Legal function at Lookers, aligning the team more closely to strategic priorities and embedding more efficient, technology-enabled ways of working. This has driven sustained improvements in service delivery, pace and legal risk coverage, alongside significant year-on-year cost savings. The impact of this transformation was recognised through the team being awarded ‘In-house Team of the Year’ at the Manchester Legal Awards 2025. She is now also leading broader transformation across her wider department, driving greater alignment and efficiency across Compliance, Data Privacy, Risk, Health & Safety and Internal Audit. Her approach is grounded in the principles of combined assurance, reducing duplication, strengthening oversight and embedding greater cost discipline in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. In her capacity as Company Secretary, Oona works closely with the Lookers’ Board and senior management to support effective governance, robust board processes and clear alignment between strategy, risk and oversight.

Beyond her executive responsibilities, Oona is passionate about mentoring and supporting the development of others, with a particular focus on social mobility and education. She currently serves as a school governor, contributing to governance and leadership within the education sector and supporting the development of future talent through various mentoring schemes.