About

‘Innovative and forward looking, with strategic vision’, Tan Gin Boon heads both legal and risk at leading regional telecommunications company Axiata. ‘The highlights have been building the department from a start-up to where it is today, and being recognised by my peers as someone who is more than just a lawyer,’ Boon says. When he joined in 2004 the company was already in growth mode, and amid the demands of implementing the new legal department’s processes and hiring staff, there were also sizeable transactions to contend with. Axiata Group’s demerger with Telekom Malaysia and its subsequent listing on the Malaysian Stock Exchange also further complicated the company’s legal and regulatory regime. This was not only due to its change in status, but also to the new control it had acquired over various subsidiaries. The rapidly-evolving nature of the region’s telecommunications industry has demanded ongoing adaptation as the law struggles to keep up. An added challenge, Boon explains, has been contending with a general reluctance to involve the legal department in the early stages of transactions. ‘In my part of the world the awareness of getting the legal team involved is still quite low, and legal is seen more as a part of compliance’.