Team size: 29

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

CEPI is still a relatively young organisation, established in 2017, which has grown exponentially through the pandemic to date. As such, the focus of the organisation since I joined in 2022 was to institutionalise and build on the learnings and best practices in pandemic preparedness and response, strengthen the internal governance, leadership competencies and operational efficiencies, and further shape the organisation’s ability to achieve its mission as we complete our CEPI 2.0 strategic cycle and prepare for CEPI 3.0.

Over the last 12 months, I have focused on strategically transforming the CEPI Legal team into a high-performing, standalone division. This transformation involved growing the team from a small group of legal counsel, spread out in different functional units across the organisation, into a robust 15-member unit in a standalone division that has a seat in the Executive leadership team. The restructured team now includes dedicated Legal Heads of Business Transactions, External Affairs, and Investor Relations, supported by experienced Legal Counsels, an Associate General Counsel team, and a strong Legal Operations function. Through such transformation, we have also articulated and established more clearly the role and value of the Legal function within a highly scientific, global non-profit and mission-driven organisation operating within a complex and evolving global health ecosystem:

1. As protectors, enablers and facilitators of CEPI’s mission, providing thought leadership, counselling and advice on a wide variety of matters and across multiple legal disciplines; 2. As innovative and proactive contracting partners, providing a bridge between CEPI’s mission and the contracting requirements for Equitable Access, which is vital to CEPI’s mission; and 3. As reliable and dependable Business Partners, embedded with the rest of the organization and providing strategic functional and leadership guidance across the organisation.

The new Legal Division has also successfully launched a robust end-to-end Contract Management Policy and Procedure in the last 12 months, establishing clearer contracting processes, roles and responsibilities, and ensuring a stronger contracting governance framework.

As of this writing, the Legal Division is in the process of integrating the existing Governance, Risk and Compliance function into the Division, which will expand the Legal Division from its current team of 15 to 29. This new organisational construct is a testament to and recognition of the strength of the Legal Division and the strong confidence of its Board and Management in the Legal function to oversee, manage and lead these critical aspects of our organisational strength and sustainability.

Externally, we are also a proud team that has supported and concluded key agreements with various sovereign investors, funding partners and grant recipients over the last 12 months, which bring together public sector, private sector and academic partners to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasure against emerging viral threats. Some of these key agreements and partnerships that we successfully signed and launched over the last few months include –

A Research Preparedness Program in East and Central Africa (RPECA), which aims to bolster clinical trial capacity and disease outbreak readiness in the region;

An agreement to fund an AI-enhanced self-amplifying mRNA vaccine set to combat one of the deadliest known viruses; and

A collaboration agreement with a big pharmaceutical company to establish proof-of-concept for a novel antibody technology that could help tackle future infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics swiftly and more affordably.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

There have been several interesting experiences over the three decades of my career as a lawyer, both in the law firm and corporate environments, from where I started in my home country in the Philippines, to my legal career progression into the regional and global space that took me and my family to experience living in Germany, Switzerland and now in Norway.

But my most interesting, and I would say, most inspiring experience was when I decided to focus my legal career in the global health space. In my earlier years as corporate in-house counsel in the pharmaceutical industry, my legal work focused on the commercial areas of the business. When I started pivoting towards supporting the global health programs in big pharma, it gave my work so much more meaning and purpose.

My very first global public-private partnership agreement was an innovative, game-changing, multiparty agreement to tackle a life-threatening disease in Sub-saharan Africa, and it was signed and launched during the World Economic Forum session in Davos. From there, I have established and led a global legal team within the big pharma organisation which focused on partnerships with governments to strengthen health systems in countries, enabling access to medicines in the underserved regions of the world, and now in the novel and evolving space of preparedness and response for outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.

The most inspirational part of these experiences is the opportunity to travel to different countries and regions, which enabled me to understand better the challenges on the ground and the programs being established to address them and be able to translate and capture the related agreements in a more responsive, pragmatic and innovative way.

It always makes me happy to look back and know that one of the innovative agreements my team and I worked on, has enabled deliveries of medicines to remote villages in Africa through a partnership with a drone company – I was on the ground to witness the very first drone delivery that we made and it was one of the proudest moments of my legal career.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

A modern in-house counsel must possess a comprehensive skill set that goes beyond legal or functional expertise. One of the most important is a strong business acumen, making us strategic partners who provide insights that drive business decisions. We need to go beyond the traditional in-house counselling role of identifying and mitigating risks, and evolve into one that also identifies or even creates opportunities for the organisation. Another important attribute is the ability to cut through the noise and bring order to the chaos of the organisation. This is a key leadership quality that gives the other functions the confidence that they have reliable in-house counsels who could help filter through massive information, home in on the key risks and opportunities, and provide clear options and pathways that have solid legal and ethical foundations. Modern in-house counsels should also be able to embrace a problem-solving mindset, stay up to date on legal trends, have the ability to simplify complex legal concepts into understandable language, and are resilient to changes in the environment.

But the most important trait that underpins all the above attributes should be unwavering ethical judgment and integrity. In-house counsels are gatekeepers and protectors of corporate ethics and compliance, and are responsible for ensuring that the organisation operates within legal and moral boundaries.

What do you think sets you apart from other in-house counsel?

I don’t think it is unique but nevertheless something that provides a stronger and meaningful foundation to my approach as an in-house counsel – I was born, raised, educated and started my legal career in Asia, have further developed my legal skills and experience handling a wide range of legal and compliance matters across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the CIS countries, living across Europe and now handling US, UK and EU legal and compliance matters as well along with the other global regions.

I am very fortunate to have a rich treasure trove of insights, experiences and learnings from all of these geographical and cultural environments in which I have had the opportunity to live and breathe throughout my decades of legal career journey. I draw from these perspectives in carrying out my legal strategy and also how I lead and grow my teams.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am very passionate about global health and enabling access to medicines and treatments, especially in the most underserved regions of the world. One of the global health leaders I have worked with said that our medicines and treatments are only as good as the health systems and health infrastructure that receive them. Based on my experiences in the last several years that I have been working in the global health field, this is indeed true. As I have also witnessed these scenarios on several occasions on the ground, I am committed to dedicating the remaining years of my legal journey to enabling and innovating legal solutions, pathways and opportunities in the global health space.

At the same time, I am also very passionate about growing and developing people, which is why talent development is always a top priority for me in all of the teams I have led and worked with. It makes me very happy to see team members or colleagues that I have led or mentored over the years, growing in their roles, being elevated to higher levels across the organisation, or even being tapped by other organisations. I am very passionate about knowing their aspirations and development areas and helping them navigate to find the right opportunities to learn and grow. Being part of their professional success gives me such joy.