Previously a highly decorated in-house legal officer for British American Tobacco, Luche Joubert has been head of legal and IP services for investment holding company Remgro since 2016. His time with British American Tobacco was extensive, and in the over 21 years he was with the company he supervised a number of important strategic projects, not least of which was being South African legal lead on the merger between British American Tobacco and Rothmans International.

Joubert emphasises the impact of mentors on his professional development when appraising his career success. ‘As a young lawyer I was privileged to work with a number of seasoned and accomplished general counsel’, he explains. ‘They taught me to observe and learn, and to reserve judgement and comment until you have the benefit of both the facts and the dynamics of the personalities at play’. Having created a legal team from scratch for a large multinational, Joubert shines some light on to the philosophy he adopted when doing so: ‘This experience taught me that every individual has the potential to be special; the work of a leader is simply to motivate the individual to show and develop that potential’. On his most recent role, Joubert explains how he is again pioneering changes to the legal function.

‘The most important changes in my current environment’, he says, ‘include increase in role clarity, development of priorities and the setting of challenging goals for individual team members. I am also a great believer in maintaining a keen and active interest in the broader business and professional world around you, so that challenges can be resolved with the benefit of contextual understanding’.