‘As part of the leadership team of the Southern African markets, I am a South African-qualified lawyer, but what I’m bringing is strategic value to the team’, Priyan Pillay says.

Pillay is dealing with increasing levels of regulatory change across the region, as more and more governments turn their attention to tobacco. As the April 2015 deadline for incorporating Namibia’s substantial law changes approaches, Botswana, Zambia and Angola all look set to follow a similar path. Previously a senior associate at DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, moving in-house had never been his original plan, Pillay says, but when BAT headhunted him, the opportunity was too good to miss.

‘It was a tough choice for me at the time, as it was always a goal of mine to become a partner at a leading law firm, and I was heading in the right direction towards achieving that goal. In the end I decided legal practice will always be there and the opportunity at BAT was a unique one’.