What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The number one challenge has been creating the legal function at a recently formed company listed in Switzerland. Medmix Group results from the carve-out by Sulzer of its application business, built through multiple acquisitions over a few decades. We operate in healthcare (drug delivery, dental and surgery), industrial, and beauty and consumer segments.

After the spin-off, 2022 was the first full year for Medmix as an independent company. We built (and continue reinforcing) our competencies to reduce reliance on the shared service agreement with Sulzer and further develop our talent bench. We have been working towards building independent legal and compliance capabilities to support our global manufacturing and commercial operations and rethink how support is provided, as the medmix business profile substantially differs from the markets served by Sulzer, the group we spun off from.

As general counsel, joining a few months after the founding of Medmix, the exciting challenge has been to design and build the initial team and, beyond that, help shape our governance and the ways of working of a diverse business with global operations serving multiple markets while establishing Legal as a trusted advisor to the CEO, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors and ensuring that we directly contribute to all strategic initiatives.

Supporting Medmix’s ambitious growth and global expansion was also a focus, by securing the site for our new state-of-the-art Healthcare manufacturing facility in Atlanta, USA, acquiring the plastics business of Universal de Suministros in Spain, and signing an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Qiaoyi, a Chinese beauty manufacturing business.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

A few years ago, I joined a Fortune 500 company right after they completed the largest acquisition in their history, tripling their size in the EMEA region I had accountability for. The innovation that substantially improved how the legal team works at a limited cost was the entire redesign of the legal team by merging the two distinct teams, offering regional roles to country-focused lawyers, redefining where the team should focus (but also what has to be discontinued), mapping the skill sets for the current and upcoming challenges, bringing substantially more diversity in the team as well as more market, export control, M&A, regulatory skills and global mindset to uplift the service delivery to the business. The outcome of this deep reshuffling substantially boosted team engagement and the collaborative spirit.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

Agility, curiosity and a passion for business are the key drivers to success as an in-house lawyer. Technical skills in the leading legal field of our operations (procurement, sales and distribution, manufacturing agreements, intellectual property) are indeed required. At the same time, the difference lies in the ability of each lawyer to bring clarity and actionable solutions to the business leaders we are serving every day. Curiosity connects with a demonstrated appetite to understand the operations, and a genuine interest in the manufacturing process, the products and the solutions we offer to our clients. An agile mindset is also essential to navigate the complexity of a global group serving a broad range of businesses and end applications. Those soft skills create a strong connection with the company, thus making the lawyers’ role more efficient and enjoyable.