Headquartered in Paris, Sanofi is a major player in the global pharmaceutical market with annual revenues exceeding €35bn in 2017. Having been at the company for almost 30 years, executive vice president, legal affairs and general counsel Karen Linehan has an advanced understanding of Sanofi’s worldwide operations, and a formidable record of delivering expert in-house legal advice to the organisation.

In addition to the large legal team in France of over 120 individuals, she has overall responsibility Sanofi’s global legal team of around 430 lawyers. In another significant year for the company, Linehan is working on the prospective sale of Sanofi’s European genetics business and is actively looking to leverage the latest artificial intelligence and blockchain technology by recruiting top young legal talent to her team. She is also tackling the new challenges posed by GDPR through recruitment and also by creating a steering committee to deal with these matters that are at the forefront of the industry. In managing her ever-expanding team, Linehan has instilled a dual role amongst her colleagues to act as business lawyers while protecting the company around the world. Linehan has occupied her current high-profile position since 2007. Before that, she had been working on international matters for Sanofi in Paris since 1996.

She joined the company in 1991 as assistant general counsel in the US. Prior to Sanofi, Linehan was an associate in New York for five years and served on the congressional staff for the Speaker of the US House of Representatives for nine years.