About

Rolls Royce’s first in-house lawyer in Brazil, Ivan Dilly has over 15 years of experience to draw from in the world famous engineering company’s Brazilian outpost. Currently its legal director and reporting directly into the country CEO, Dilly leads a compact function of three lawyers whilst also being an integrated part of the Rolls Royce worldwide legal structure. The team, which Dilly helped build, cover all aspects of Rolls Royce’s operations in Brazil including marine, energy, international, corporate and aerospace business units. Describing his work as ‘constantly evolving’, Dilly has influenced major changes in the make-up of the company structure, relocating to Rio in 2008 to accommodate a merger of several different companies into a single entity. Claiming this was a ‘big challenge’ where ‘all operations had to be changed and revamped’, Dilly displayed his organisational skill and versatility by helping merge ‘different cultures and different aspects into one single entity’. A diligent and motivated lawyer, Dilly cites his ability to ‘transition between and understand different products the business offers’ and being able to ‘speak the internal client language’ as being key achievements of his career to date. Aware that in-house legal teams can often be perceived only as “cost centres”, Dilly’s approach is one of asking how legal can define themselves as a ‘profit centre’ for the business instead. Covering ethics and compliance alongside legal support, Dilly maintains an open-door approach to his clients at all times, solving conflicts, providing support and consultation ensuring that the team always ‘think one step ahead’. Dedicated to serving and upholding the Rolls Royce brand, Dilly enjoys ‘a good relationship’ across the company and despite their successes are able to be ‘very humble, behaving in a good manner following company principles’.