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?

I always believe that my objectives planning should start by understanding the business demands, strategies, challenges and potential risks and opportunities. This would enable me to consider all necessary legal and compliance solutions that would enable the sustainable and profitable growth of the business. As the general counsel of Schindler, I take full responsibility to develop the capabilities of my organisation by empowering my colleagues with the necessary knowledge and tools that make them ready for the escalating and varying business challenges.

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

One of the major and remarkable projects that I was working on was the localisation of our elevators manufacturing in Egypt which aim to support the Egyptian government strategy to reduce their need for hard currency. In return Schindler will be nominated for supplying and installing 50,000 units to different projects in Egypt over the coming 10 years which would generate an estimate aggregate revenue of 800 million euro for Schindler. It is one in kind project for Schindler globally and I was honoured to lead it commercial and legal negotiations for the last two years. The project has been announced by both the Egyptian Government and Schindler in many media channels last July.

How do you measure the impact of ESG initiatives on the company’s overall performance and reputation?

It is a great question especially considering my role as head of Schindler global human rights office. We have launched a project aiming to develop and maintain a comprehensive governance framework for managing the human rights risks associated with our business. This project comes with four pillars: empower oils colleagues with the necessary learning and knowledge, engage our colleagues and encourage them to act as true human rights ambassadors, embed human rights standards into our policies and processes and enforce the human rights standards and policies through a comprehensive monitoring and assessment system.

To measure the impact of ESG initiatives on our company’s overall performance and reputation, we employ the following strategies:

We establish quantifiable indicators related to our ESG goals, such as carbon emissions reduction and diversity ratios, allowing us to track progress and identify areas for improvement. Regularly engaging with stakeholders through surveys and focus groups helps us gauge perceptions of our ESG efforts and their effect on our reputation. Using reputation analytics tools, we monitor media and social media sentiment to assess how our ESG initiatives influence public perception. We analyse the relationship between our ESG activities and financial metrics, demonstrating how sustainability efforts can lead to cost savings and revenue growth. We compare our ESG performance against industry standards and peers to identify best practices and areas for enhancement. We publish ESG reports detailing our initiatives and results, showcasing transparency and accountability to stakeholders. We monitor historical data to evaluate the sustained impact of our initiatives, ensuring they contribute positively over time.

By taking this comprehensive yet focused approach, we effectively measure and communicate the impact of our ESG initiatives on our overall performance and reputation.