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Gordon Weber ‘operates extremely successfully and at the same time in a prudent and thoughtful manner’, remark observers. This approach might be one of the reasons why he managed to seamlessly merge the legal and patent department which now ‘in an impressive way contributes to enforce and implement IP and licensing initiatives’. At Schott, an international technology company developing and producing special glasses and materials for the past 130 years, Weber heads a team which includes patent attorneys and the way the department works is marked by its close cooperation with the compliance, IP, insurance and company safety departments. Weber has also successfully ‘brought together lawyers previously working separately in various regions and business units’. This internationalisation promotes the legal department’s growth in vital markets such as China, Brasil, and Russia, as well as the implementation of a cross-regional compliance management system. Particular career highlights were providing legal advice on the company’s withdrawal from the crystalline photovoltaics business with a turnover of €1bn in less than eight months in 2012, and setting up a company-wide compliance management system which not only covers topics such as antitrust and corruption but also work space and building security, environment protection matters and data protection. Weber sees a particular challenge in the ‘constant search of an ideal connection’ of the centralised legal department with the operative business units. External legal advisors should display ‘more entrepreneurial bravery’.