Spotlight On…Syngenta Group and its legal team

Syngenta Group is a global leader in agricultural technology and innovation, wholly owned by China National Chemical Corporation (ranked 31st among the Fortune Global 500), and operates in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Syngenta Group boasts more than 250 years of experience in research and innovation, ranks first in the global crop protection industry, third in the seeds industry, and is at the forefront of digital agriculture. Syngenta Group is well known for empowering farmers with cutting-edge technology to enhance productivity and foster the growth of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food systems. In 2023, its revenue exceeded 200 billion RMB, with over 59,000 employees worldwide. Syngenta has four listed companies in China.

Syngenta China is committed to the modernisation and upgrading of Chinese agriculture, leading the modern agricultural service industry and digital innovation, promoting the progress of agricultural science and technology in China, and driving high-quality and sustainable development. It acts as a national team and leader in Chinese agriculture, supporting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas through the modernisation of agriculture and rural areas. Syngenta China’s seeds, plant protection, crop nutrition, and modern agricultural services are all market leaders in China. It has over 200 companies in China with more than 19,000 employees, and its revenue in 2023 was 74 billion RMB.

The legal and compliance department consists of over 70+ legal, compliance, and intellectual property experts, responsible for legal affairs management, compliance management, corporate governance, and intellectual property management. Closely aligned with the company’s strategic goals, it provides solid legal support and professional services for the company’s strategy and major projects, demonstrating the important value of legal affairs, compliance, and risk management.The legal and compliance cepartment is not only the group’s only award-winning function but also ranks among the top in all submitted projects in terms of evaluation scores.

Career Bio

Haiyang CAO, leadership team member, general counsel and chief compliance officer for Syngenta Group China, holds a Master of Laws from Zhejiang University and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). With 19 years of experience in international business and legal affairs management, Cao has worked for the international business divisions and overseas investment platforms of China National Nuclear Corporation, State Power Investment, and China Energy Engineering Group. He has held positions as international business project manager, head of legal affairs, general counsel, and chief compliance officer, amassing extensive expertise in legal affairs management, compliance management, international business, and project management.

Haiyang CAO serves as an arbitrator at leading institutions, including Beijing International Arbitration Center, Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, and Hainan International Arbitration Court. He is also a mediator at several prestigious organisations including Mediation Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission and Beijing Promotion Association for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Furthermore, Haiyang CAO has been appointed as a member of the AAA ICDR China Committee, a Committee Member of the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutralisation Expert Committee at the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, and a Board Member of the Zhejiang University Alumni Association.

He has been invited to speak at the China Global Investment Summit, the China Global Compliance Summit, and the “Belt and Road” Ten-Year Review and Outlook Forum as a guest speaker, sharing insights on overseas investment risk control, compliance management, and project management.

Haiyang has written “Top Legal Chiefs Demonstrate How to Use Project Management to Improve Legal Work Efficiency,” published in the 13th issue of the 3rd volume of CHINA BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL in 2022, discussing the empowerment of legal work through project management thinking and tools. He was interviewed by the leading international legal journal Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR) and published “CGGCO’s Haiyang Cao says political sentiment, local expertise key when facing overseas investment challenges,” sharing compliance and regulatory issues in overseas investment, construction, and operational management.

Haiyang’s professional aspirations are to become a senior legal expert and excellent manager in the field of international business and investment management, leveraging solid professional knowledge, deep industry background, flexible business thinking, and diligent work ethic. To summarize and share good practices in project management, empower legal and investment teams with project management thinking, and standardised, checklist-based, and information technology approaches to continuously enhance value creation. To maintain openness and value exchange and cooperation, actively connect and share with peers and alumni, helping more legal and investment professionals to improve their sense of professional gain and career achievement.

What are the main projects that you have been involved in recently? 

SGC has a complex company management system; there are more than 200 participating and holding enterprises, which are from state-owned enterprises, multinational companies and private enterprises, including four listed companies. In addition to regular management, the legal team has thoroughly studied the management requirements of SASAC and Sinochem, learnt from the experience of Syngenta management, and combined with the rules and actual situation of listed companies, sorted out and formulated SGC’s equity management system and related management processes, standardized the procedures for reporting important information, ensured the listed companies’ compliance, and ensured the consistency of the disclosure of information and the promises and assurances.

The company’s litigation team is a cross-functional legal team, with at least one litigation expert from each business unit joining the team. This setup fully utilizes the company’s legal resources, promoting communication and knowledge sharing between different units. The team is responsible for monitoring and supervising over 300 significant litigation disputes, maintaining a high case closure and success rate. In 2023, it has cumulatively helped the company recover potential economic losses of over 650 million RMB and has obtained economic benefits of more than 400 million RBM through proactive rights protection, safeguarding the company’s legal rights.

The legal team has a very flexible, practical, and efficient legal support mechanism for major projects. According to specific needs, the legal team provides support for significant projects and contracts, and corporate governance, actively participates in the negotiation and revision of mergers and acquisitions-related agreements, shareholder resolutions, company bylaws, and other related legal documents, deal structure design, and M&A planning, assessment and filing of control rights consolidation, pre-audit compliance (such as sanctions risks), due diligence, tax planning, post-agreement signing guidance, as well as mergers and integration efforts, significantly enhancing business efficiency and risk control levels.

The legal team brings together in-house experts and is committed to using intellectual property rights as a source of motivation to drive the company’s development and enhance its competitiveness in the market. Outstanding achievements have been made in counterfeiting, germplasm resource protection, trade secret protection, software and data protection.

We have established a professional investigation team and introduced satellite remote sensing technology, drone camera, electronic tag anti-counterfeiting and other full traceability technology techniques to empower the fight against counterfeiting. The IP team has filed more than 100 administrative complaints in the seed category, which has resulted in a cumulative revenue of more than RMB 400m. In addition, the team has helped cooperators and recently located 20,000 mu of infringing seed production. As a multinational company owned by a central enterprise, this unique corporate attribute poses special challenges for Syngenta Group China’s compliance management work. The legal team actively carries out various compliance management tasks. They help the enterprise fully understand risks, make correct decisions and judgments, and find innovative ways to promote the rapid development of the business in China. At the same time, the legal team works closely with external law firms to stay abreast of changes and progress in the compliance landscape and conducts training for the business teams, employing compliance methods to drive corporate growth.