Team size(optional): 5

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

In the past 12 months, I have led the legal function through a pivotal phase, shaping its role as a strategic enabler across the business while navigating complexity, growth, and change.

I have refreshed our governance framework to support more effective decision-making, modernising board reporting and embedding clearer, more agile processes at leadership level.

I also led the legal response to a serious health and safety incident, managing the end-to-end process following a workplace fatality. This involved regulatory engagement, providing guidance across the business, and liaising with our insurance brokers, ensuring the organisation responded with integrity, transparency, and a focus on continuous improvement.

I am building a cohesive, business-aligned legal function that enables, not inhibits, commercial outcomes. Together with the team, we are enhancing our contracting processes to empower the business while improving risk visibility. In parallel, I have initiated a unified, strategic approach to intellectual property, designed to protect innovation and unlock long-term value.

Each of these initiatives reflects my broader aim: embedding legal as a proactive, strategic partner that enables resilience, clarity, and growth.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

A modern in-house counsel must combine legal expertise with commercial insight, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. In the food industry, where the pace is fast, the legal issues are wide-ranging, and the macroeconomic and regulatory landscape is increasingly complex, these qualities are essential. From commercial contracts and corporate governance to safety, sustainability, brand protection, and strategic risk, the legal function must operate across a broad spectrum while staying commercially focused.

Technical skill is only the foundation, what truly distinguishes effective in-house lawyers is their ability to connect legal risk with business context and offer clear, actionable advice that enables decision-making.

Collaboration is essential. The most impactful counsel are those who build trust across functions, speak the language of the business, and operate as integrated problem-solvers rather than gatekeepers.

Resilience and agility are also critical. In-house lawyers must navigate ambiguity with clarity and confidence, especially in dynamic environments.

These are the attributes I value and actively cultivate in my team, because they support the legal team in being recognised as a trusted, strategic partner that drives commercial outcomes and creates long-term value.

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

Periods of instability or crisis require legal to be calm, clear, and forward-looking. My approach starts with understanding the broader business context, the potential impact on commercial performance, operations, and reputation, and ensuring legal is a source of clarity, not complexity.

I approach legal aspects by translating complex challenges into clear, manageable information that enables fast, informed decision-making. Whether navigating a product recall, a serious health and safety incident, or major supply chain disruption, I focus on bringing structure and focus to fast-moving or ambiguous situations, helping the business move forward with confidence.

In high-pressure situations, I concentrate on what’s most material to the business and ensure legal is embedded early in the conversation, not brought in late. I am passionate about ensuring the organisation learns and develops through these periods, capturing lessons learned and using them to sharpen strategic thinking, strengthen governance, and improve risk-based decision-making.

The food sector brings constant pressures, cost volatility, regulatory scrutiny, reputational risk, so our legal approach is grounded in resilience and forward-looking risk management. Legal must enable agility with accountability to help the business stay strong, not just during crisis, but after it.