What are the projects that you are most proud of working on over the past 12 months?

Working with my legal and privacy team to absorb a “perfect storm” – delisting our company, a shift in strategy, dealing with business as usual and, in the meantime, transitioning the team’s modus operandi through data driven efficiency optimisation. Having been met with a huge amount of resilience, stamina and positivity, I feel especially proud of my team and of what we have achieved over the past year.

What do you think sets you apart from other in-house counsel?

Where legal expertise is obviously the basis for any counsel, it is a basis. As an in-house counsel other skills matter – at least – as much, including: overseeing, simplifying and ‘translating’ complex matters, appreciating different perspectives, understanding the real risks involved, followed by quick decision-making and/or guidance with a personal touch, while sometimes also having the confidence to just trust your gut. Over the past years, I was lucky to have had the opportunity to develop those skills, probably a bit more than average.

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

Data driven decision-making is key, in my view. How do you allocate time and resources and why? Where does the team have real added value to the business and the customer? This data is not always available, to the extent required, and it takes time and effort to build a proper basis and continue doing that. A modern counsel should not shy away from numbers in general and running optimisation projects next to “firefighting” business as usual. The ROI is huge!

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

Optimising basically everything. I am very passionate about optimising in the broadest sense: mood, time, individuals (including myself), teams, processes, systems and so on. Focusing on how you can make the best out of any situation under the given circumstances, while improving going forward. Everything can always be better, but there is also always a lot to be proud of already.