About

Lily Wong joined PepsiCo Australia and
New Zealand in 2016 and was soon promoted to senior legal manager in 2017, a leadership role supporting the sales and beverage teams, as well as key transformation projects. She is a trusted lawyer with over 10 years of experience gained both in-house and in private practice. Winning multiple in-house awards in Australia, Wong is a recognised legal counsel in the industry and is highly regarded among her colleagues. For instance, one colleague comments: ‘[She] is not only a great technical lawyer, but she exemplifies core leadership skills of integrity, empathy, and clear and simple communication. Because of this, she is sought out by the business to advise on the most complicated projects as well as representing the organisation in promoting diversity and inclusion and mentoring and developing staff across all parts of the business. There is no doubt that [she] will be a future star general counsel’. During her time at PepsiCo, Wong has worked on a number of significant projects. One of them is the reduction of PepsiCo’s geographic footprint via sale of manufacturing plants, where Wong was the PepsiCo Australia and New Zealand lead in a complex cross-functional project involving human resources, supply chain, operations, procurement and transformation office matters. ‘I successfully negotiated and executed the sale of two manufacturing facilities in excess of expectations, with value add components, such as the ability for the business to scale down over time and minimal make good. I also negotiated a sale price which exceeded capital expenditure assumption and minimal make good obligations which resulted in further significant cash savings to the business. This has enabled the closure of one of our major manufacturing sites in 2018, reducing our cost to produce’, Wong says. Another example is the rationalisation of offices and distribution centres, which involves collaborating with a cross-functional team where Wong delivered practical and commercial legal support, ensuring the successful transition to new distribution arrangements. Wong has a keen interest in organisational health and has been active in trying to shape the organisation and take responsibility for lifting employee policy and workplace standards. ‘She is driving the diversity and inclusion agenda at PepsiCo, launching the Larry Thompson fellowship program, the first international extension of the fellowship outside of the US, providing a springboard from which to advance diversity and inclusion in the legal profession by providing an in-house corporate experience to law students to facilitate a wide range of racial, ethnic, economic, and geographic backgrounds in the legal profession more broadly’, a nominator says. In addition, Wong has driven a number of other initiatives to promote diversity, including a new policy launched at PepsiCo –cultural floating holiday, where she worked with the HR team and diversity representative to allow employees to “swap out” Australian public holidays based on the Christian Anglo-Saxon calendar, for ones more culturally relevant to employees such as Chinese New Year or Eid. According to Wong, ‘At PepsiCo, we talk about knowing the business. This enables me to embed myself in the organisation and be in a better position to add value to my client. I approach problems with a strategic and legal lens to facilitate the business to land at a commercial outcome. Other important traits that future general counsel will need is emotional intelligence, adaptability and resilience. Our capacity to interact with each other plays a big role in contributing to the success of a company. In the era of artificial intelligence and the push to be faster, stronger and more efficient, soft skills like communication, empathy and what makes us human are extremely important’. Most recently, and a further evidence of Wong’s growing stature in the market, she was highlighted as the FMCG Lawyer of the Year 2019 at an industry press awards ceremony.