About

PepsiCo is one of the best known food and beverage companies in the world, owning a gamut of high-profile and market leading brands. In recent years the Middle East region has been a tricky market for the Fortune 100 company, and the consumer goods market as a whole is often known for its disputes and legal challenges. It is in this setting that Dean Sheehan operates as vice president and general counsel for PepsiCo in the Middle East and North Africa – overseeing a team of 20 lawyers based at the UAE regional headquarters. Sheehan originally joined PepsiCo’s Dubai office in September 2012 to take a role as senior director for legal. As he excelled in this position and demonstrated his tangible commercial impact, Sheehan was promoted to his current role in February 2015. He has launched a number of high-impact initiatives since joining the company, but perhaps the most influential in the long term is the MENA legal department’s ‘first rolling three-year strategic plan and KPIs to measure value and success’. According to Sheehan, ‘this has allowed the wider company to understand the performance and effectiveness of the department in language that the business understands’. Communication of complex and often difficult messages is something that Sheehan excels at, and it can be considered a foundation stone of his career. When asked how he has managed the legal team and company through significant market challenges over the years, his answer is outstandingly pragmatic: ‘You overcome these challenges by embracing and accepting the “super-VUCA” (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world we live in and see this as exciting and critical to one’s personal and professional development. Your colleagues accept this is the reality of today’s world, what they need to know is that their lawyers have the knowledge, processes and relationships in place to help them deal with, and respond to, these realities quickly and effectively’. Sheehan’s ability to deliver results has seen him promoted to the senior leadership team for the MENA region; he now sits alongside the region’s president, CFO, CHRO and CMOS, making strategic decisions and implementing key projects for the region. Before joining PepsiCo, Sheehan was vice president for group legal at Al Tayer Group in Dubai.