About

Felipe Alves is the current legal director of the Brazilian arm of Janssen Cilag Pharmaceutical, who operate as a subsidiary of American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. Alves has held his current position since February 2014 and has amassed almost two decades of experience within the Johnson & Johnson group. Thanks to this experience, Alves is well-versed in several areas of the business, most notably having dispensed legal advice across tax and consumer business departments and defining the strategy and implementation of Janssen Cilag’s activities related to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In his current position Alves is able to put his multi-faceted experience to good use, being responsible for all legal areas related to the Janssen Cilag business, which include intellectual property, regulatory, competition and others. Utilising his legal nous and corporate experience, Alves assists his business partners in numerous ways. He meets regularly with the managing director, engages with the entire board in matters related to competition law and communication skills, and is recognised as a ‘business partner and not just a legal advisor’ through this process. Alves states that his advice entails ‘more than just the legal perspective, with the understanding of the business impact of decisions’, but still ensuring judgements are always made ‘according to the law and in compliance with company policy’. In terms of individual career highlights, Alves cites procedural improvements of contracts and the divestiture of important brands, such as Jontex and Shower to Shower. A leader with strong ethical considerations, Alves is keen on building a ‘high-performance’ team that is also ‘transparent, with a diversity of people and opinions’. His philosophy is further illustrated with his concern to keep the team ‘motivated, engaged, accountable and with a high level in terms of deliverables’.