Formerly a private practice lawyer from 1990 until 1997, Lilian Kontou first went in-house with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Athens as a senior manager in the company’s tax and legal services department, becoming highly proficient in the areas of tax, employment and commercial and corporate law in the process.

After performing exceptionally well at PwC for five years, she began operating with her current employer Air Liquide in 2004, and now takes on significant responsibility for the company as legal director for South East Europe. Kontou had the following to say about her achievements within the team over the course of more than a decade with the company: ‘I have both insourced and rationalised the legal support to the company. Before my joining, Air Liquide legal support was accomplished through numerous external lawyers and poor follow-up and management of this.

Thereafter, I built a network of high quality external legal advisors, that – under my supervision, management and guidance – allows the provision of top level legal support and services to the company’.

In terms of the personal qualities that have contributed to her success, she places these in terms of her ability to ‘inspire trust and create consensus’ in her teams as well as her ‘competency in understanding business challenges’. These have led to ‘demonstrated top quality results’ across the span of her career.