Team size: 17

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

NATO DIANA is an ambitious multilateral effort spanning all 32 NATO nations from the Pacific Northwest to Türkiye’s eastern border. Our mission is to locate the most promising innovators from across the Alliance and support the development of their solutions to maintain NATO’s technological edge. As the second permanent employee of DIANA, which became an organisation on July 1, 2023, I’m proud of the cross-functional legal and security team we’ve put in place in less than two years.

In the past 12 months, I’ve led the development of a first-of-its kind multinational innovation legal framework that combines the best thinking from the public and private sector, and aligns with the regulatory frameworks of all 32 NATO member states, to provide an engine for cutting edge technology to thrive and succeed in both the commercial market and the defence supply chain. Without careful calibration with our stakeholders (startups, investors, governments, NATO), the ambition of DIANA could be hindered by its complexity. However, I view this as an incredibly exciting legal challenge, because one of the greatest threats to our collective security is the risk that we allow process and bureaucracy to undermine our collective technological potential. Therefore, DIANA is an opportunity to prove that great lawyering can make the critical difference—and that, even when working in an historically risk-averse industry, balancing risk and results is possible.

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

A great in-house lawyer must be curious, practical, and a careful listener (not just in meetings or conversations, but when walking the halls and working in the bullpen). They must holistically understand the business they’re advising. I have found that in-house counsel (and, indeed, great outside counsel) are often uniquely positioned to not only develop the legal strategy of their organisation, but also to play a key role in advancing the wider business strategy because a great senior in-house counsel must have a 360 degree view of the organisation.

Lawyers who view their role one-dimensionally – as a kind of risk filter for the wider business – risk becoming both irrelevant and unable to carry out that function, as they often wait too late for issues to come their way. On the other hand, lawyers who take a proactive tact to drive a legal strategy, but don’t develop a fundamental understanding of the objectives of the organisation they’re advising, run an even greater existential risk to the organisation of prioritising process over substance. (This is a common failure of lawyering I’ve seen in public sector organisations.)

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

At the 2025 NATO summit, the Allies collectively reaffirmed “our shared commitment . . . to harness emerging technology and the spirit of innovation to advance our collective security.” This statement is among only a handful of sentences spread across only five paragraphs (summit declarations in recent memory have had dozens and dozens of paragraphs, so this one went right to the point). It is an honour to go work every day to help ensure that our children and grandchildren can live another 75 years under the umbrella of peace and prosperity fostered by NATO—and it is humbling that DIANA’s mission “to harness emerging technology and the spirit of innovation” is at the core of that effort.