What are the most significant cases, projects or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

It is a fact that Sandoz Legal Department is constantly involved in numerous projects that create significant value for the business. Recently, Legal Department has been co-coordinating the so-called “Simplification Project”, which implied re-designing of a significant part of the internal and external related documentation, thus strongly contributing to enhance efficiency, to streamline processes and to create a more agile and effective organisation. For this project, Legal Department was happy to receive a nomination for “CEO Awards”- the highest award in Sandoz.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

During my career, I cannot say there have been “periods of instability” or “crisis”. Nevertheless, the organisation encountered several situations whereby its resilience was put at test. Looking back to those moments, the key elements of support were: (i) legal strategy properly adapted to mitigate risks; (ii) to the best possible extent, prior preparation and training of the organisation for such situations; (ii) excellent communication between relevant stakeholders.

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

One experience I am particularly proud of in my career is the coordination of legal aspects implied by local de-merger of Sandoz from Novartis owned company (following the global spin-off of Sandoz Group from Novartis Group) in 2023 (and co-coordination of entire local project). This project was top 3 most complex worldwide, considering the structure of the transaction. Its complexity resided in the necessity to perfectly and timely match the de-merger process itself (from corporate, financial and labour perspectives) with regulatory and quality requirements, as to ensure business continuity. For this project I was extremely proud and happy to be nominated at Global Legal Awards- “Successful Standalone Sandoz” category.