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

Over the past year, my team and I have been closely involved in a number of strategic, complex and multi-jurisdictional matters central to the Sanlam Group’s transformation and growth agenda.

A significant focus has been on major strategic transactions requiring extensive regulatory engagement, including Sanlam’s disposal of its active asset management business to Ninety One, strategic initiatives linked to GoTymeBank, large-scale technology and platform migrations, the disposal of non-core businesses, and the integration of acquired businesses. We have also supported several transactions in India, including increasing our interests in the Shriram Group’s insurance and asset management entities.

Alongside transactional work, I have led initiatives to strengthen legal governance and risk management, enhance legal risk reporting, and modernise legal operations through technology-enabled solutions, positioning the legal function as a strategic partner to the business.

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

During periods of instability, the priority is to create clarity for decision-makers by distinguishing what is urgent from what is material, and framing legal risks in clear, decision-ready terms. Legal works closely with executive management, risk, compliance, governance, information security and communications to ensure aligned, co-ordinated responses rather than reactive or siloed action.

I focus on remaining calm under pressure, knowing whom to engage, and ensuring that accurate information flows quickly to the right decision-makers. Retaining perspective is critical — very little of what we deal with is truly life-or-death, and clarity of judgement is often the greatest value legal can add in moments of uncertainty. By remaining measured and prioritising effective communication, legal can help the organisation respond thoughtfully rather than reactively, and support leadership in making sound decisions even when the environment is unsettled.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

Three trends stand out for me.

First, AI enablement in legal functions is moving rapidly from experimentation to expectation. Over the past year, we have focused on using technology and AI-enabled tools to improve how legal work is delivered. The opportunity lies not in automation for its own sake, but in using AI to improve consistency, insight and decision-making, while freeing lawyers to focus on higher-value work. In-house teams also need to engage early with AI governance and ethics.

Second, there is a clear shift from technical adviser to strategic business partner. Legal must be embedded in strategy and commercial decision-making, while systematising knowledge, judgement and processes so that institutional value endures beyond individuals.

Finally, soft skills — judgement, influence, communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration — are now as critical as technical excellence in shaping outcomes.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?
 
Our role is to enable confident decision-making by integrating legal insight into strategy, rather than acting as a reactive checkpoint. We work closely with the business on major transactions and disputes, regulatory engagement and transformation initiatives, shaping decisions early, anticipating regulatory expectations and creating execution certainty in complex environments.

This requires a strong understanding of commercial objectives, supported by clear governance frameworks that allow the business to move with confidence.

A clear example is our leadership of the regulatory engagement and approval processes for multiple strategic transactions over the past year. Group Legal co-ordinated regulatory strategy across jurisdictions, engaged proactively with regulators, aligned internal stakeholders, and managed submissions and approval conditions. In a heavily regulated environment, this work not only enabled execution, but strengthened regulatory trust and positioned the business to move more quickly on future initiatives.