Team size: ~200

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

Following the strategic acquisition of Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc., Coca-Cola Europacific Partners plc (CCEP), the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler by revenue, now operates across 31 diverse markets with over 41,000 employees. As well as playing an instrumental role in the integration, the team have improved controls and managed down over £20m of ongoing litigation, identified and removed over £3m in ongoing fraudulent practices and supported the labour relations team in improving working relationships with the unions, leveraging well established relationships elsewhere. Over the past year, the legal team has also been playing a major role in customer negotiations across all countries in a difficult economic landscape.

They led the development of a robust 2030 carbon reduction roadmap, ensuring regulatory alignment in the first year of CSRD reporting, integrating legal and regulatory risk with the enterprise risk management taxonomy. The team also defended CCEP’s delivery of 100% recycled plastic bottles, spearheaded the rollout of responsible sourcing frameworks and human rights risk assessments across the value chain, improving reporting and checking with new tools. The team have been responsible for due diligence and structuring a number of investments for delivery of sustainability innovation. We rolled out more campaigns with our now well-recognised « Is it COKE » strapline further embedding ethical standards into every tier of the organisation and supporting colleagues in standing up for our values. In parallel, the legal function strengthened enterprise resilience by leading a cross-functional initiative to enhance governance around cyber risk in an increasingly complex threat landscape, leading the crisis team 24/7.

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?

In times of instability or crisis, it is a priority to bring calm, clarity and commercially pragmatic solutions, ensuring that decisions are not only made fast, but also principled and sustainable. Whether navigating cyber threats, geopolitical shifts, or regulatory changes, we operate as strategic partners to the business, not just risk managers. Our legal strategy is completely aligned with CCEP’s broader resilience agenda, supporting supply chain continuity, protecting our people and safeguarding reputation to continue and deliver growth. We scenario-plan, stress-test governance frameworks, and ensure our people are empowered to act with integrity under pressure. This is checked in with the top 100 leaders, the Executive and the Board annually and is much appreciated for its practicality and alignment with the business.

Ultimately, resilience is about trust, trust in our systems, our people, and our values. Legal plays a central role in protecting and reinforcing that trust, especially when it matters most. Our objectives are aligned to the business objectives. Our team lead risk, business continuity and incident management making sure that in crises everything is handled calmly, rapidly pulling together the right experts, engaging the right leaders, developing strong robust but flexible plans which respond to the business needs. We have the right external experts available and handbooks for crises so that all involved know what to do and who to call. This year, we launched a new water scarcity handbook, which has been much appreciated by our colleagues.

How can general counsel foster a corporate culture that supports ESG principles and compliance across all levels of the organisation?

Embedding ESG into corporate culture starts with tone from the top and is sustained by action at every level. As General Counsel, I champion to embed ESG into our governance frameworks, decision-making processes, and risk assessments, ensuring it is core business imperative and how we operate across CCEP. Legal plays a key role in translating ESG principles into practical policies, supplier standards, and employee behaviours.

By partnering across functions, providing clear guidance, and holding ourselves accountable, we help build a culture where doing the right thing is the expectation, not the exception.