Career Biography

Axel Viaene currently serves as senior VP legal, general counsel for the International Business Group of Cencora. In this role he supports the company’s international Alliance Healthcare, ICS, Alloga and World Courier businesses. He joined the company in 2022 and is based in London. In addition to his International General Counsel role, he served as interim global chief compliance and risk officer (CCRO) for Cencora during 2025. From 2013 to 2022, Axel was the general counsel and company secretary of GrandVision, a leading international optical retailer listed on Euronext Amsterdam, headquartered in Amsterdam and currently part of the EssilorLuxottica Group. During 2003-2013 Axel served as EMEA legal director, corporate counsel of Starbucks based at the Amsterdam EMEA HQ. He worked for Dell during 2000-2003 as their Benelux legal counsel also based in Amsterdam. Axel started his career as international associate attorney at The Coca-Cola Company Legal Department based at the company’s global HQ in Atlanta. Axel holds an LLM of the University of Chicago Law School and JD of the University of Leuven in Belgium. He has been a member of the New York Bar since 1998. Axel is a Belgian national and speaks Dutch, French, English, German, Italian and Spanish.

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

Over the past twelve months, I worked on a number of strategic commercial legal projects for Cencora including M&A activity in a number of jurisdictions, acquiring pharmaceutical logistics companies, concluding key strategic multi-billion dollar upstream and downstream commercial agreements with manufacturers and customers, as well as developing new business channels in the manufacturer services space (e.g. private label, commercialisation, patient services, pharmacies support). My role included Senior Leadership Team advisory, coordinating external counsel support and deploying in-house legal resources. In addition to my strategic international commercial legal role, I served as global interim chief compliance and risk officer for Cencora during 2025 managing the US and international teams, overseeing the development of Monitoring and Third Party Risk Management tools, supervising the Enterprise Risk Management process and reporting to the Compliance and Risk Committee of the Cencora Board in the process as part of the regular Cencora Board and Committee meeting cadence.

Please provide a brief description of any internal transformation/development projects within your legal team over the last twelve months (AI usage, new legal panels, expansion/restructuring of legal team, DE&I initiatives etc.).

My passion is creating, managing, expanding and upskilling in-house legal teams. I built legal teams from scratch at Dell, Starbucks and GrandVision as the first person in role when joining those companies. My current priorities are: defining fit-for-purpose legal support solutions for newly acquired businesses in the pharmaceutical logistics space and upskilling and future-proofing my current team, including a responsible incorporation of AI in the legal support model, taking a pragmatic approach focusing on productivity and service level optimisation.

How do you use AI within your legal team to improve efficiency while maintaining quality, governance and integrity? How do you think AI will impact in-house legal functions more widely?

AI is one of our top strategic priorities. Like many in-house legal teams, we are currently in the experimentation and learning stage identifying use cases as well as the risks and limits of AI. We are realistic in our aims focusing on concrete productivity gains and the right balance between human intervention and technology use. We also focus on governance, responsible use, guidance for Board members and training for our internal clients.

Have you had any particularly unique or defining experiences during your legal career? What has been your biggest career challenge or highlight?

Two of the most challenging projects I supported in my capacity as general counsel were the IPO of GrandVision on Euronext Amsterdam in 2015 and the sale of GrandVision to EssilorLuxottica and subsequent delisting in 2019-2022. I worked on the EssilorLuxottica transaction against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and advised Management and Supervisory Boards throughout the complicated process. During the implementation, I focused on protecting the in-house legal team, obtaining all regulatory approvals and ultimately closing the transaction whilst sustaining corporate governance and compliance process discipline.

Beyond your legal role, is there a cause or initiative you are especially passionate about?

I had the privilege of working in a number of high performing corporate legal teams (e.g. Coca-Cola, Dell, Starbucks) and experienced the importance of Servant Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion in practice. I am passionate about LGBTQ+ and currently serve as the International Executive Sponsor for LGBTAllies for Cencora. I am of the firm belief that in order for people to give their very best they have to be able to be their true selves at work. My mission is to create a House of Safety, empowering people to realise their full potential at work without having to hold back because they are different.