Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?  

Being that sustainability is a core innovative topic and a key business driver for HP, the sustainability manager and I defined a new approach to support and partner with the business and marketing team. 

We set up a new process to effectively and swiftly identify sustainability related approved wording and relevant content to be used in external communication and marketing initiatives, avoiding frequent rework and multiple revisions. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?    

Quoting Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard: “in order to solve the problem we need to truly understand it; we need to address challenges and fix systems, not just symptoms.” This is exactly what I think a modern general counsel needs to do. Given the wide range of legal complexities, as well as sustainability, geopolitical, and environmental concerns, the role of the general counsel will become more and more pivotal and multidisciplinary. 

This figure will need to increase not only their hard skills but also their ability to encompass and apply a helicopter view of both the business and the social needs to help the C-level to meet their relevant stakeholders’ expectations. It means that the general counsel has to become more and more strategic, fostering and amplifying their influence in the decision-making processes of their companies. This would also imply getting acquainted with the new AI tools that will be increasingly relevant in this hybrid lifestyle. 

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company? 

Sustainability is at the heart of HP’s business strategy and focusses on three pillars: climate action, human rights, and digital equity. In support to the climate action pillar, as a general counsel together with the sustainability team, I actively support the local compliance and market access of HP products. Given the increasing regulatory complexity, this activity is growing significantly. With regards to the digital equity pillar and volunteering, as part of HP Italy’s steering committee, I support to drive and direct funding, mentoring, and equipment supply. Education is the focus area, and for the 4th consecutive year, HP Italy partnered with Junior Achievement, supporting their Impresa in Azione program which includes employee mentoring as “Dream Coaches”. In 2022 this positively impacted over 150 students, and I had the opportunity to act as a Dream Coach for six months. Additionally, I also opted to volunteer as legal mentor to younger resources in the company at a worldwide level, collaborating with the Associazione Italiana Giuristi d’Impresa (AIGI).    

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?  

Prioritising diversity and inclusion within my legal department has been a central topic over the past few years and it is something I have always included as one of my personal goals as a member and external ambassador of the Italian DE&I team. During these years, the entire team has worked to cultivate and disseminate the HP Way and DE&I themes, by (i) organising events with internal and external speakers who shared important messages and examples of “know-how” to our community. Topics spanned across gender equality, social sustainability and innovation, embrace equity, circularity, disabilities as an opportunity, and digital equity. Our team has also organised effective DE&I conversations with the aim of being free to speak our own mind, sharing, caring, and building a network of trust, where we applied the “grow together” principle.