Led by award winning Group Legal Officer & Group Compliance Officer Kurt Drieselmann, Aspen Pharmacare Holding Limited’s legal team in 10 jurisdictions, consists of approximately 30 professionals and 20 support team employees. Driving the Group’s initiatives from the headquarters in Durban, South Africa, a key area of focus of Aspen’s legal team in the region has been to support the phenomenal growth of the business, which has seen the company share price double over the last four years.

With a clearly defined goal of “Facilitating Business”, the team is structured to align to the business and operational structures of Aspen. Following the corporate “One Aspen” philosophy the team has showcased the capability to ‘think group’ but ‘act local’ within each legal office or legal specialist stream of the company. A uniquely commercially focused and entrepreneurially minded team, Aspen’s legal function continually seeks ways to innovate and improve its offering to the business.

Aspen’s legal team has embarked on numerous projects aimed at fostering a culture of learning, including: a ‘continuous legal development program’, designed to increase knowledge and understanding of the business to create a more strategically aligned and efficient team; an inaugural in-house legal workshop; an annual global legal workshop and many others. This learning has allowed the team to support the company on its growing transactional front, providing support at different levels in various jurisdictions and on a transaction by transaction basis.

Over the years, the team has won a number of professional accolades, including the “Legal Department of the Year – Large team” category in 2013 at the Africa Legal Awards and achieving “Highly Commended” status in the same category in 2016.