About

Simona Musso joined Lavazza – the esteemed Italian manufacturer of coffee products – in 1996 in the capacity of in-house counsel, and through her dedication and involvement in all legal production cases since, was afforded the opportunity to build and lead the legal department, taking up her current role as the group general counsel and company secretary in 2001. Since then she has been involved in the negotiation and signing of six significant partnership deals in France, Denmark, Canada, Italy and across European geography, having the opportunity to accompany the international and inorganic growth of Lavazza establishing itself in fifth position in the global coffee market in terms of size. Musso takes great pride in the fact that she has had the chance to witness the company’s exponential growth, and subsequently shape the legal department growth in order to match the international rise of the company from a local to a global brand. ‘I am proud of the attitude I have always encouraged in my team to act as business partners, sharing problems from the beginning and cooperation with a problem solving approach. I believe this kind of attitude is internally recognised as a powerful strength of our department’ states Musso. She manages M&A operations, litigations and compromise agreements with direct involvement in the negotiation phase, and also leading the identification and prevention of risk factors for the company, acting as compliance manager and member of the supervisory body “Organismo di Vigilanza”. A business-enabling legal professional to the truest extent, Musso has been directly involved in the internationalisation process of the company, both in terms of establishing a direct presence in the coffee market through more than 15 acquisitions of local coffee companies and framing a structured distributorship model in more than 90 countries.