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

Over the past twelve months, I have continued the focus on establishing and embedding the newly created role as competition counsel within the BAMA Group, with a particular emphasis on continued integration of legal considerations into strategic decision-making processes.

A key priority has been to move competition law from a reactive control function to a practical decision-making tool for the business. In practice, this means ensuring that competition law considerations help define viable strategic options for management and the board, as well as shaping how these processes are run.

In parallel, I have strengthened the group’s compliance framework by developing and implementing updated competition law guidelines, as well as delivering tailored training programmes for key personnel across the organisation. I have also further developed BAMA’s onboarding and training initiatives to ensure consistent awareness and understanding of competition law risks. A particular focus area has been crisis preparedness.

As the world continues to face geopolitical, technological and economic uncertainty, how do you manage legal risk while still prioritising commercial objectives?

In an environment characterised by geopolitical, technological and economic uncertainty, managing legal risk is not about minimising risk as such, but about defining what level of risk is acceptable and ensuring that overly risk-averse approaches do not undermine commercially sound outcomes. In my experience, overly risk-averse legal advice can be as limiting to the business as insufficient risk management.

Rather than presenting a single legal conclusion, I aim to provide a range of viable options, each with a clear articulation of associated risks and trade-offs. This allows the business to make conscious choices, rather than defaulting to the most risk-averse approach. Ultimately, my role is not to provide definitive answers, but to enable informed decisions and exercising sound judgement as to when to challenge and when to facilitate.

As the in-house role continues to evolve from legal advisor to business partner, what strategies have you found most effective for stakeholder management and aligning legal advice with business strategy?

As the in-house role evolves, effective stakeholder management is less about providing legal input on request, and more about being sufficiently embedded in the business to influence decisions at an early stage. A key priority for me has therefore been to ensure early involvement, allowing legal considerations to shape the available options rather than assessing them retrospectively.

This requires both a strong understanding of the business context and an ability to frame legal advice in a way that supports decision-making, typically by translating legal considerations into practical implications and clear options. Over time, this approach helps build trust and credibility, as stakeholders experience legal input as pragmatic, relevant and aligned with the business’ objectives.

At the same time, being a business partner does not mean avoiding difficult advice but knowing when to challenge assumptions and when to facilitate progress.