About

Annabel Moore’s route to the position of general counsel at Diageo Asia Pacific was an unconventional one. In 1995 she had joined a small team of in-house lawyers working at the London headquarters of international drinks company Guinness. Her arrival coincided with an increased volume of work coming from the company’s Asia Pacific businesses, which at the time had no on-the-ground legal support. Moore saw that there was an opportunity to help grow the business in the region, and in 1997 she moved to Singapore as the first lawyer of Diageo, which was formed that year as a result of the merger between Grand Metropolitan and Guinness. For the first time in her career, Moore had to work without the support of colleagues, something which she says was a valuable professional development experience. ‘I learned that I had to have an opinion and I needed to make my voice heard; I didn’t have the time or the luxury of seeking a second opinion from other lawyers. However, it also taught me to trust my instincts and that years of legal training and experience meant that it was unlikely that I would make any huge errors’. She has since grown the regional legal function to a team of more than 30 lawyers and has become an important member of the company’s senior management. In 2002, Moore was appointed to the legal leadership team, a body which comprises the general counsel of Diageo plc, the general counsel of the various regions of Diageo – North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific – and the heads of the intellectual property, corporate security and company secretarial functions. In 2007, she was appointed to the Asia Pacific executive team and was made primary counsel to the president of the region.