About

Giovanni Barone joined Coca-Cola HBC Italia in July 2015 as senior legal counsel, and after an 18 month transition he was appointed as legal director as of January 2017. Joining after a 12 year career in private practice, Barone was keen to make an impact at in-house level at Coca-Cola, a global company he states he has ‘always admired’. Since then he has been managing a high-performing team of six lawyers and one trainee, leading them across a broad range of complex transactions and key projects. Since joining, Barone has made the transformation of the legal function a personal goal to conquer, making large-scale changes to its approach and engagement and the way it interacts with top management and other company functions. This has not gone unnoticed by the executive members of the company who have sung Barone’s praises, deeming it a ‘rare transformation’ and complimenting him for his leadership skills. They have also noticed the way he has ultimately changed the team’s culture and its perception, from a reactive, formal and risk-averse approach to providing proactive, pragmatic and business-friendly advice through constant alignment with other functions, so that legal advice is now embedded in company strategy from the outset. ‘I have brought to the legal team a law firm type of mentality, focusing on practical problem solving and business-minded advice rather than a formal and risk free approach. I have brought in the mind-set to minimise the “you can’t do this” answers to other functions and replaced them with “how to do”, in order to allow the business to flow and create a constructive and trusted relationship’ says Barone. Team development aside, Barone has been instrumental to renovating Coca-Cola HBC Italia’s compliance package for other business functions, creating and tailoring new guidelines in relation to specific business areas. He has ensured their integration into the company through interactive training to relevant functions as well as follow up meetings to further embed them in the day-to-day work and routines of the company’s employees. His aim of increasing awareness of other company functions extends to his proactive approach to litigation, where he has amplified the number of trainings to enhance awareness and risk management: ‘Such strategic approach has led to a significant reduction of pending litigations and related risk provisions accrued in the company’s financial statements. In two and half years between the end of 2015 and June 2018 we have cut down all pending litigations by 52%’ says Barone.