Team size: Six

Major legal advisors: PLMJ

What piece of work or project over the past year are you most proud of, and why was it particularly significant for the business?

Since my incorporation in Start Campus (in October 2025), the achievement I am most proud of is the closing of Start Campus’s latest deal with Nscale in respect of SIN02 – the second data centre at the Sines DC Campus, which is currently commencing construction. This transaction will support one of Europe’s largest deployments of next-generation NVIDIA GPUs, enabling frontier AI capabilities for Microsoft’s European customers. This was a particularly significant milestone for the business, as it firmly positions Start Campus at the forefront of Europe’s AI and hyperscale infrastructure landscape, anchoring the campus as a strategic gateway for Europe’s AI economy. From a transactional standpoint, it was an extremely complex and demanding process, involving multiple stakeholders, tight timelines, and sophisticated commercial and contractual arrangements that required careful coordination and negotiation.

Contributing to the successful execution of this deal was especially rewarding given its scale, visibility, and long-term impact on the business, as well as the level of collaboration required across internal teams and external counterpart to bring it to completion.

What skills or experiences have been most important in your development as an in‑house lawyer so far?

The most important skills that I believe have helped me successfully develop my role as an in-house lawyer are time management and organisation. Early on, I realised that everything tends to be urgent and very important for the business, so a key part of the role is being able to prioritise effectively and focus on what truly requires attention at any given moment – as every department / internal team is working on different matters and expect their workstreams to be treated as first priority. This can sometimes make it challenging to manage internal clients.

Over time, however, I have learned to take advantage of being so close to the business – having full context, understanding the commercial drivers, and being involved in decision-making processes help me make better decisions and analyse every matter in a different light. This proximity allows me to provide more practical and tailored legal advice, which is something that does not always happen in a law firm.

Who or what has most influenced your professional development, and how do you continue to build your skills and knowledge?

Rather than a specific person or factor, I believe that my professional development has been strongly shaped by different persons I have worked with and the examples they have set, as well as by the environments in which I have worked. At the beginning of my career, working in a law firm taught me to be highly rigorous and detail-oriented. I worked with senior lawyers from whom I learned the importance of reviewing my work thoroughly to ensure that it is of high quality and can be relied upon by others. This helped me develop a strong sense of accountability for what I deliver – something that has proven particularly important in an in-house role, where there are often fewer layers of review and responsibility is more directly assumed.

In my second role, as an in-house lawyer at one of the country’s largest banks, I worked with leaders and peers who placed a strong emphasis on autonomy and ownership. Through their guidance, I developed confidence in making decisions independently and gained a deeper understanding of the importance of truly knowing the business. I also understood how critical it is to build close relationships with commercial and cross-functional teams, so that I can respond to their needs in a practical, effective, and comprehensive way. Currently, at Start Campus, I feel that I continue to learn every day. Working alongside colleagues with diverse and often international backgrounds (many of whom have built their careers abroad) has exposed me to different perspectives and ways of working and thinking, which continues to enrich my development.