How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Our recent corporate journey at Accelleron was marked by change and instability: it was about carving out our 100-year-old successful turbocharging business from a large SMI parent group, and spinning it off for separate listing on the Swiss stock exchange. Embedded in a committed Executive management team, my role in this journey included building up governance at Board and Executive management levels, the process of listing, agreeing terms for separation and transferring the worldwide business to some 50 new legal entities and several joint ventures, as well as establishing core functional processes. Above all, I had the pleasure to build up an essentially greenfield global team for the Legal, Integrity and Intellectual Property function, pulling together experienced generalists from diverse cultural backgrounds and with deep domain knowledge in various fields. Key selection criteria were curiosity combined with the passion for driving continuous change and a fresh look at business-enabling risk posture, the willingness to go beyond the comfort zone, and the ability to connect and communicate.

The core legal strategy is all about enabling and protecting sustainable business success and growth. This means spotting project risks and developing alternative solutions, for example in acquisitions and strategic collaborations. It means designing processes based on reflected risk assessment and aligned risk posture. And importantly, it means communicating in a passionate and transparent way, so stakeholders are clear on what they can expect and what the organisation is expecting from them.

In a world of growing and accelerating complexity, it is a must for the legal function to be fast in understanding and implementing new regulations and solutions, and to embrace new technology. A clear commitment to continuous learning from the company and from each team member is paramount to the resilience of the function and the sustainable success of the company.

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?

Within two years from stock listing in October 2022, Accelleron closed three acquisitions to enter the business of fuel injection and to expand its offerings of digital customer solutions. The legal function was instrumental in working with others to deliver signing and closing as per plan and continues to support the integration processes. Other notable projects of the Legal, Integrity & Intellectual Property team include sustainability regulation and reporting, sanctions & customs, and managing high-stakes disputes.

How is your in-house legal function strengthening corporate governance in response to evolving expectations around transparency, accountability, and stakeholder engagement in Switzerland?

The legal function is instrumental in corporate governance in various ways, be it in working with Board and committee chairs to prepare and run meetings and reach decisions, ensuring compliance with stock regulations, defining approaches to public reporting and proxy and shareholder engagement. A core part of the governance journey is about reflecting the company values in our processes, some of which have been in place for many years.