A long-serving employee of the Nireus group – the world’s leading company in the production and trading of Mediterranean aquaculture species – Maria Labrinou has served the company since 1996, when she first joined as a legal counsel in the group’s Athens headquarters.

Labrinou was appointed head of the legal department in 2000 and moved to a general counsel role at the company in 2007, before assuming her current position of legal and corporate affairs director in May 2012. A proponent of new procedures designed to improve efficiency in her legal department, she explains how she has been the driving force behind the ‘simplification of task assignment procedures via electronic methods, comprehensive reporting and an emphasis on compliance corporate culture, proactive measures and risk management’. A loyal professional, Labrinou has been ‘actively involved’ in all of the group’s corporate transactions in the aquaculture sector which encompasses legal due diligence and M&A deals in not only Nireus’ home market of Greece but all other countries that the company is present in, namely Italy, Spain, Turkey and Norway.

In addition to these transactions Labrinou was an important part of the company’s public offers on the Athens Stock Exchange as well as in the acquisition of a considerable equity stake in a Norwegian company, an experience she says ‘considerably widened [her] knowledge and experience on international capital markets legislation’. Explaining how the demands of her role as well as her experience with the company help her face her day-to-day work, she states: ‘Having performed numerous due diligence processes and SPA negotiations for Nireus acquisitions and business proposals has contributed to a deep understanding of both business and legal issues that may arise in M&A projects.

Assuming HRM and CSR responsibilities has enhanced further my global view of the business and helped me to become a real business partner to the company’s management. Having a legal background was an additional asset and not a constraint to these new tasks’.