Widely commended by peers for her leadership, motivation and personal drive, Antoinette Absaloms has had an outstanding in-house career of 16 years, providing legal support to businesses in 31 countries across Africa.

Employed as an operations counsel at Nairobi-based Coca-Cola Central East and West Africa since 2011, Absaloms has demonstrated a rare capacity in providing hands-on advice on a broad range of business issues, ranging from the management of human resources and intellectual property to tackling complex litigations and issues related to competition and antitrust compliance.

Despite her high workload, Absaloms also has time to get involved in initiatives that go far beyond the traditional remit of the in-house role in the region, namely advising on long-term strategic initiatives, providing support in the management of relationships with independent regional bottlers, overseeing internal training initiatives on company policies and ensuring full compliance with the organisation’s internal code of business conduct.

Prior to her tenure at Coca-Cola, Absaloms spent a decade as a general counsel at Unilever for East and Southern Africa, where she held responsibility for overseeing legal support to nine operating companies in seven countries. She began her legal career as an associate at Salim Dhanji in 1999.