How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Teamwork all the way. Legal teams, as business partners and advisors, are called to provide support to every area of the company that may need us during a crisis or an uncertain scenario. We are tasked with safeguarding our business, guiding the company towards compliance with legislation, and protecting our company’s reputation, especially in crises that can reach the core of our business. As a legal function, we must assist company management by providing guidance that helps to develop a quick, effective, and strategically-led management response to events that have the potential to impact our business and/or reputation, all aligned with the business strategy. When facing a crisis, we must always maintain contact with the business, not from a controlling or auditing perspective, but as facilitators, helpers, and advisors. Thus, we have to identify legal risks and be ready to face special scenarios ex-ante, not only ex-post. This includes reviewing our contracts with both customers and suppliers to ensure that proper measures can be taken if we are unable to comply. Communication channels must be clear, and we must ensure that the company is protected in case a breach occurs during this period. Additionally, we need to dive into legal risks specific to the case, maintain constant contact with the necessary business areas during the crisis, ensure legal compliance, protect our data and confidentiality, actively manage data security, and plan risk mitigation strategies that may be necessary.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?

The Weir Group strategic plan is closely linked to sustainability. In fact, sustainability is core to Weir’s purpose and is a critical priority for the mining industry. Mining has a critical role to play in decarbonisation as, over the coming decades, the world needs significantly more metals to transition to net zero. Accelerating sustainable mining focuses on solving Weir customers’ biggest sustainability challenges. The need for technology solutions in mining is compelling – the world needs more transition metals to achieve net zero, but the mining industry needs to extract these using significantly less energy and water. Helping customers scale up and clean up is more relevant than ever. To achieve this, our plan is to:

Use less energy – We are innovating solutions that deliver significant energy savings, helping our customers save operating costs and reduce CO2e emissions.

Use water wisely – Water is fundamental to the way minerals are processed, but we need to use it wisely. We are developing tailored solutions that reduce water consumption, increase recovery and recycling rates, and, where possible, introduce water-free process steps.

Create less waste – More than 90% of mined rock ends up as tailings, the waste stream produced in conventional mining processes. Technologies that tackle energy and water will mean lower volumes of tailings and therefore less waste. We are also working on innovative ways to manage tailings more safely and sustainably.

As General Counsel, my position allows me to partner with the company in achieving these goals by updating and creating policies, training our colleagues, ensuring our suppliers comply with our goals and vision, and helping the business grow through proper contract negotiation and risk mitigation.