About

Marlene Connolly is the group counsel international for information security software specialists Forcepoint, previously known as Raytheon|Websense, which has business operations in the Irish region complementing its existing US business. Connolly oversees a ‘cohesive and collegiate’ legal team that is flexible and accommodating in its work, able to “load balance” and support colleagues irrespective of the issue or its geographic location. The International legal team Connolly leads is responsible for the legalities of Forcepoint’s EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, which despite its relatively small size oversees a large geographical remit from its base in Dublin. In the recent past there has been extensive M&A activity for the company, which saw Websense merged with Raytheon Cyber Products to create Forcepoint in 2015, and the newly-named Forcepoint acquire the Stonesoft and Sidewinder firewall groups from Intel the following year. The name Forcepoint itself was an important strategic move in the company’s rebranding, and was assisted via the legal team’s work through due diligence, transaction execution and completion stages of the integration project. Such an efficient response through a potentially tricky project fraught with risks acts as an exemplar of the excellence of the team’s work. Quarterly Business Reviews allow easy communication between the team and business colleagues, and Connolly states it is sometimes necessary to ‘educate the employees as to how and why we do things, always being open to adapting our style and approach’. Such a collaborative approach benefits Forcepoint in several ways, amongst them being sales deals completed quickly, products coming onto the market ahead of schedule and employee exits to be effected legally and fairly. One of the team’s impressive innovations is the automation and standardisation of legal documents that now simply require date, name and address, which allows the business to “self-serve” without legal involvement while preserving the risk profile of the company. Constant changes and innovations cement the Forcepoint team as a reliable, commercially-minded and efficient function.