About

Haylen Pong’s in-house experience began in Salmat, an ASX-listed marketing company. ‘Very early into my tenure I became an integral part of the legal team, created enduring working relationships across different business streams, and was invited to become a legal partner within the digital leadership team, which was an unprecedented event’, says Pong. During her time at Salmat, she received consistent acknowledgement from the business and executive team, and was awarded with the employee of the year award for 2017. Externally, she was presented with multiple awards from legal industry association and press in Australia as one of the country’s brightest young lawyers. Since January 2018 she has held a legal counsel position at Nearmap, an ASX-listed aerial imagery and technology company. ‘At Nearmap, my experience was developed through an involvement in senior management and operational matters, including negotiation of strategic deals within ANZ and US regions to expand internationally, and advising Nearmap’s board of directors and executive team on cyber security, risk governance, and compliance matters, including implementation of a new risk management framework’, Pong explains. Pong has proactively initiated to the executive and board the implementation of this new risk management framework, which consisted of cross-functional and cross-regional communication and fertilisation of skills in problem resolution. When discussing the support she would like to see rising in-house lawyers receive from senior management she explains: ‘Senior lawyers should encourage or nurture rising stars to develop lateral skill sets outside of their comfort zone or basic legal responsibilities and skills. This could include development of business acumen and interdisciplinary operational capabilities, or managing and implementing complex projects across multiple jurisdictions and business units’.