About

Telecoms company du occupies an important place in the history of the diversification of the UAE’s economy, as it was the first domestic telecoms company to challenge the market upon its founding in 2005. It has grown exponentially since this time, achieving over 50% market share within five years of the company’s launch, and now boasts huge revenues (over $3.4bn for 2016) as well as a constantly expanding portfolio of products. Anneliese Reinhold has been with the company every step of the way during its precipitous rise to the top, having served with them since the end of 2005. She has both a top-tier understanding of telecoms in-house legal work and perhaps unparalleled experience in growing and nurturing start-up businesses to establishment and beyond, as she explains: ‘Du was actually the second telecoms start-up of my career! In my previous role as group general counsel at Qatar Telecom (now Ooredoo), I provided all of the legal & regulatory support to the Qtel consortium’s $104m bid for the first competitive mobile licence in the Sultanate of Oman. Qtel’s was the winning bid, so I then handled all the legal and regulatory work surrounding the establishment of Nawras (now Ooredoo Oman) as well as acting as its initial Board Secretary’. Reinhold is recognised internationally for her achievements, and is highly active in extra-curricular legal activities; she is currently a non-executive director of the Association of Corporate Counsel, based in Washington DC. As such, she is passionate about creating and nurturing the next generation of legal talent to fill the in-house ranks of the future, offering them the following advice: ‘Avoid the current trend of over-specialising at an early age. Instead, strive to gain broad experience across a wide range of areas/disciplines, as this will stand you in good stead for a successful in-house career’. She feels that educators have as much a part to play in this as well, believing that current educational methods could be updated. ‘I would suggest an overhaul of the approach to the teaching of ethics’, she explains, ‘particularly as it relates to the in-house profession, to adopt a more practically oriented approach. This would align the legal world with, for instance, the chartered accountancy profession, where ethics education is focussed around specific practical threats and safeguards’.