About

Carol Xueref is one of the most respected in-house lawyers in Europe, having excelled in a number of high-profile roles while contributing significantly to a range of professional legal bodies. Xueref has worked with Essilor, manufacturers of ophthalmic lenses and a range of optical equipment, since 1996. She is currently its secretary general and serves as the director of several of its subsidiaries. Xueref began her role at Essilor with a team of 15 lawyers and has since grown the department to around 60 layers split into a number of functions. The team’s handling of corporate matters has been particularly impressive at a company that oversees around 20 transactions a year. Xueref has written extensively on legal and in-house matters and was recently recognised with the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award. She was a founding member and past president of the French association of in-house lawyers, Le Cercle Montesquieu, where she chaired the Ethics of In-House Lawyers working group and has held a number of notable industry positions including the secretary general of the Association Française des Femmes Juristes (French Association of Women Lawyers), director and member of the Ethics and Strategic Committees at Ipsen, director of the Franco-British Lawyers Society and board member to the Conseil de la Concurrence (French Competition Authority), where she chaired the compliance working group. Xueref began her career working within Commercial Attaché at the British Embassy in Paris before moving to the Chamber of Commerce International in Paris in 1986. She was then appointed as director of legal and tax at Banque Populaire de la Region Ouest de Paris and subsequently served as the head of legal at Crédit Lyonnais from 1993 to 1996 where she was also appointed general counsel at the subsidiary OIG.