About

Carlos Figueiredo has worked at Unilever Jerónimo Martins since the onset of his career. He joined the company in 1998 as a management trainee and he has held various positions in the human resources department of Unilever companies, until 2002 when he was appointed legal counsel. Since 2008 he holds the diverse position of general counsel, company secretary and national human resources and communications director. He has taken a very meticulous approach in the management of the legal department by investing in the areas of law that have the most impact on the business and focusing more on preventive, rather than reactive legal remedies. Figueiredo has been an integral part of strategic reforms. He designed a new corporate governance structure, which rendered the role of the company secretary central to the business operations. He also integrated the role of the general counsel and the legal function in the strategic decision making process. Throughout his in-house career he has successfully dealt with 55 board meetings of two important holding companies, always reaching universe resolutions. One of the biggest challenges he has faced was when he was leading the legal work for the closure of a big industrial unit of Unilever Group. He considers it a big achievement, as he accomplished the closure without making any employees redundant, demonstrating good social responsibility amid the economic crisis in Portugal.