About

In 2016 Antonio Adami joined Canadian Solar after spending almost eight years working at another US primary global solar manufacturer and developer. He was appointed as senior counsel to lead the legal efforts in the EMEA region for the energy group, which was in the process of re-building its EMEA operations in their entirety. After a few months he became general counsel for the region with a clear mission to set up a new legal team and processes, as legal support in the EMEA countries formerly depended on the legal team in the US for legal assistance. Canadian Solar’s EMEA region is complex from a legal perspective, as it includes as many as 117 different jurisdictions, including within its boundaries all kinds of different legal systems that pose challenges for deals and new market entry. The region is also a rapidly growing market for the company, developing faster than any other region which has been reflected in the company’s decision to relocate its headquarters to Milan. Adami expanded the department’s capabilities to provide full assistance on these matters across all relevant jurisdictions, and has seen growth and diversification in doing so. The team has grown to include four members and provides assistance all across the region both on non-transactional and transactional matters, as well as being the first point of contact for compliance issues. At the same time, across 2017 and 2018, while adjusting to the new business model and breaking ground in new markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the legal department has provided full assistance to achieve completion of the existing deals, in particular, the construction, financing and sale to a primary investment fund of 150MW of solar assets in the UK. This period of tine also saw Adami advise on the acquisition and sale of a 6MW project in Namibia and the creation of a significant pipeline in Turkey. He has developed his management ability through a range of experiences, including two complete constructions of legal departments from scratch, the challenges of the diverse MENA region, and working on high level important transactions whilst keeping a cool head. He says that, ‘having most of my career worked on international deals in a broad range jurisdictions pertaining to almost all kind of legal systems, has moulded my legal thinking into a way of thinking independent from any legal system’s peculiarities and giving me an incredible flexibility in jumping from a jurisdiction to another’. He has a passion for training in-house counsel and spends a considerable amount of time training interns working within his team.