About

Spotlight on Navaneetha Dilipumakanth

Navaneetha (Neetha) is head of legal for Haleon in Australia and New Zealand and achieves success by partnering broadly across the business, collaborating with the team to drive business success.  

Her professional approach is based on building trustful relationships. By immersing herself deeply in the business, she adds value to the ANZ business and the global Haleon legal team. She focuses on simplification, efficiency and effectiveness in legal risk management, mitigation and compliance. Neetha builds bridges for the creation of relationships and brings practical legal solutions to the table, hoping to leave the business in a better shape and place than when she started. 

As a sole in-house counsel, with over 15 years’ experience, she is well aware that a common issue for many in-house legal teams to review matter management and triage practices from time to time, to ensure that the right matters are focused on and business priorities are met. Accordingly, technologies such as AI, electronic signature processes and contract management software will help in-house lawyers and legal professionals automate and streamline manual tasks so they have more time to focus on high-value work, reduce turnaround times and increase responsiveness.   

Neetha describes herself as an optimist who is adaptable and embraces change.  This attitude along with her client engagement skills, transparent ways of working make her a respected and valued member of the Haleon ANZ team. She is honoured to be recognised on the The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Australia 2023.