Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

Last year, our shareholder AustralianSuper sold-down a portion of its interest in the Ausgrid Group to APG. I led an internal team of around 30 individuals assisting with the 12-month sale process, from the target’s perspective. This involved successfully preparing management presentations and responding to hundreds of RFIs within compressed timeframes, to ensure AustralianSuper’s sale process ran to timetable.

In my role as group counsel – commercial and technology, I am responsible for certain legal categories of both the monopoly network distribution business of Ausgrid and the competitive metering and infrastructure services business PLUS ES.

In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

Technical ability, communication skills and attention to detail are expected of any high performing lawyers. A strong legal team requires:

Trust: mutual trust in each other, and mutual trust with the business. Trust is earned within the team by empowering others to make decisions and grow, and proactively seeking opportunities for them to meet their development objectives. Trust is earned with the business by going beyond mere “risk or issue spotting” to a true advisory capacity, where a commercial lens is applied, and calibrated based on risk and value, to any transactional or advisory work.

Shared purpose: a team mentality is forged through an alignment of values, belief in the organisation’s vision, and positive team and organisational culture.

What is the biggest risk to your industry or organisation and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

The biggest risk to our industry is climate change. The increased cadence of bushfires, floods and major storms causes a stress to our network assets and endangers our people and the public. Safety is our number one priority and efforts to reduce the risk to our staff being involved in hazardous situations.

I am involved in Ausgrid projects aimed to support national and international climate goals, for example – by minimising Ausgrid’s carbon footprint, supporting customers’ transition to a lower carbon economy and ensuring the network is resilient to these climate risks. I have been involved in projects involving the Australian Renewable Energy Agency which seek to increase the penetration and usage of renewable energies.

What challenges have you overcome to get to the position you are in today?

Working in the mergers and acquisitions team of a large city law firm for a decade brought with it the usual challenges around tight deadlines and demanding hours. However, I am grateful to have worked alongside excellent lawyers and sophisticated clients on large-scale transactions: without that experience I would not have honed my technical ability and developed the resilience which have set me up well for my current position and the future.