About

Raimondo Rinaldi has been the general counsel of Esso Italiana since 1997, and from 1998 to 2008 he also managed the coordination of legal services to ExxonMobil affiliates in the Mediterranean area. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Competition Law and Practice Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce – Italian Section, and the president and chairman of the Italian Association of In-house Counsel (A.I.G.I.). He identifies that joining IBM in early 1980 allowed him to understand the need to tailor legal requirements and opportunities to business targets and moving to ExxonMobil and acting as general counsel for more than 21 years has given him the understanding of how to act in a global organisation and deal with challenges in a very complex legal, regulatory and business environment. Acting as CEO of the Italian Corporate Counsel Association during the last five years has offered Rinaldi the opportunity to know and deepen different ways to interpret and live the profession of in-house counsel from large multinationals to PMI as well as to promote and debate the role and ethics of in-house counsel before authorities and institutions in Italy and abroad. In his current role at Esso Italiana, Rinaldi has overseen all major transactions and legal matters in the last 21 years, including the sale of a concern involving more than 1,400 service stations, a major antitrust damage claim and a criminal investigation including the seizure of an industrial plant. He emphasises the need for more balanced legal and business awareness, flawless operations and attention to full compliance. He adds that he has ‘changed the mentality of the law department from a service provider to an added value client partner a recognised key contributor to business objectives’. In addition to his tenured in-house career, Rinaldi is also a lecturer for the Master in Business Law held by A.I.G.I. in Milan and by LUISS University in Rome, a speaker in seminars and at conferences on compliance, antitrust and distribution law aspects and author of various publications mainly on distribution and competition law.