About

Now head of the 26-person group legal services function at the €15bn-revenue Merck Group, Dr Stefan Fandel has had a meteoric rise in the organisation since he joined as a corporate counsel in 2009; Dr Fandel has responsibility for group legal and corporate governance matters at the company. He has played a part in a number of marquee projects for the company during his time there. Apart from working on the integration of Millipore Group and the comprehensive ‘Fit for 2018’ operational restructure programme, Dr Fandel recalls his role on the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich Group as particularly memorable: ‘This was my first M&A deal in which I had to take the project lead for legal; it started just two weeks after I had arrived in my new position as head of group legal services. Coordination with internal and external legal colleagues and other functions was quite challenging in both terms, time and amount of work’. He is clear as to how he has brought his legal team closer to other business units and group functions at Merck, and how to ensure coordination and alignment remains high. ‘We have fostered a legal business partner concept which has made us even more service oriented’, Dr Fandel explains. ‘In this context, I have implemented a flexibility model which allows the group legal services department to exchange in-house lawyers among the teams. As a consequence, we are able to deal with a higher workload and enhance development opportunities for our people simultaneously. Finally, the digitalization of the department helps us to keep up with efficiency requirements and brings our work to a new level. All this has also contributed to the overall reputation of the Legal & Compliance function within Merck’. As well as this, Dr Fandel liaises very closely with the senior management of the company at the highest levels up to the executive board.