About

Mark Loynd took up the position of genral counsel at Giordano International in 2013 and has since taken on the roles of company secretary, head of international brand collaborations and group human resources director. Highlights for Loynd during his time at Giordano include completing the acquisition of Giordano’s Middle Eastern franchisee and negotiating a strategic alliance and cooperative product line with outdoor brand Lowe Alpine. Of the franchisee acquisition, Loynd says that the entire project was running late and had become an ongoing issue for the business when he joined the legal function late in 2013. Loynd took over the project and navigated the final completion of the deal, which had become further complicated by extensive changes in local legislation across the Persian Gulf, until its close in early 2015. As part of the venture with Lowe Alpine, Loynd’s role was also significant. He ‘oversaw the entire process from design conceptualisation, to fabric sourcing, fitting and construction, as well as marketing, promotion and sales’. When discussing the characteristics that mark out the very best in-house counsel, Loynd remarks that those looking to get ahead should ‘know [their] business inside out, from all angles and at all levels’, which will allow them to ‘contribute towards [their] business by identifying material issues and formulating optimal resolution strategies in a way that external counsel simply could not’. Loynd’s determination to hold his legal and compliance functions to the highest professional standards while fully integrating them into the business setting means he stands out as among the most talented legal professionals in Hong Kong. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 2007 and worked on both criminal and civil cases. He began his in-house career as GC of Zheng He Financial Holdings.