Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself? 

Several significant events and decisions required thorough and innovative legal leadership in the past few years. The business I was responsible for, first as general counsel and then in a much more significant role as general secretary, was acquired in 2018 by a private equity-backed vehicle — Neptune Energy. Together with the new Board and CEO, we immediately started to streamline and focus the business on its core strength, activities and geographies. In my role as general secretary, I was responsible for orchestrating and supervising the closing of activities and exiting countries like Libya and Brazil in an orderly and compliant way which was a very delicate task involving many aspects beyond pure legal work and advice.  

Second, also being responsible as country manager for the French activities of the Group, I took the difficult decision to close the former head office of the Group in Paris, transfer certain employees to other locations outside France and negotiate a social plan with the French unions and the works council for the remaining hundred employees. The additional challenge stemmed from the fact that a particular industry regime protected most of our employees and the idea of complete cessation of business in the IEG industry was a first in France’s history, which drew significant attention from various stakeholders being its multiple ministries, labour agencies, national unions, and press. After four months of intensive and complex negotiations with all stakeholders, a social plan was signed and approved by the authorities.  

The third major event was the complete restructuring of the German business with several hundreds of employees by shutting down sites, relocating the head office, creating a new and much leaner and flatter organisation, negotiating a social plan for certain employees and building up new entities with a significant percentage of new hires – all this while continuing operations safely and without disruption. Again, thorough legal preparation, respectful but goal-oriented negotiations with employee representatives and unions, and many discussions with local management were crucial to success. 

Have any recent political, economic or regulatory changes impacted your work? How are you dealing with this?  

The war in Ukraine has triggered two important questions for Neptune Energy. The legal department needed quick answers. First, what ties does the company have to Russia, Russian companies or individuals? Second, how can we help secure the energy supply for the countries in which we are active? In response to the first question, a swift reaction was necessary to identify possible targets of rapidly changing and expanding sanctions of the US, the UK, and the EU. Luckily there were not many, and the legal department could reassure the shareholders and top management that the few ties could be cut easily and quickly. The second topic is more a question for a mid-term horizon but surfaced quickly on top of the agenda of governments and societies. While massive investments and long-term regulatory security are required to achieve this goal, seemingly contradictory efforts are undertaken in several countries to increase taxes and levies on energy companies. We actively engage with industry associations and political leaders to find solutions and create a regulatory framework to achieve long-term and sustainable solutions. 

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities? 

The rising importance of ESG and the societal ambition of net zero is of utmost importance for an oil and gas company. The legal department closely observes the increasing number and variety of climate-related litigation in many jurisdictions. It also actively helps the company change its strategy to store more CO2 by 2030 than its production and use of products emit. Combined with new business activities like hydrogen production, this requires a rapid learning curve which we managed to achieve by acquiring new skills and knowledge but primarily by applying existing expertise and experience from “traditional” oil & gas projects to new activities and projects.