About

Neeta Thakur is a highly skilled, dynamic, and US trained general counsel with more than two decades of international expertise spanning various industries, including industrial, manufacturing, aviation, consumer goods, FMCG, support and sustainment, and financial services. Neeta has a distinguished background, having worked at two Fortune 500 giants, Boeing, and PepsiCo. Neeta’s career is marked by a proven track record of building, developing, and leading high-performing teams in multinational settings. Neeta has lived and worked in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia), and Asia.  
Currently, Neeta leads the legal and regulatory function for five sectors at NEOM Saudi Arabia comprising of Mobility (covering land, air, and maritime transportation), Education, Food, Tourism, and Enterprise Registration. NEOM is the world’s largest and most ambitious project undertaken to deliver a vision for future living – it is a US$750b giga-project being built on the pristine Red Sea coastline of northwest Saudi Arabia. NEOM includes towns and cities, ports and manufacturing zones, research centres, sports and entertainment venues, and world-class tourist destinations. It will be home to more than a million citizens from around the world.  
 
Prior to her current position, Neeta was the regional counsel for the India, Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region, encompassing more than 60 countries, while at Boeing. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing Boeing’s legal and compliance matters throughout the region, where she supervised a team of lawyers and paralegals stationed across multiple jurisdictions. Neeta played a pivotal role in directing legal operations and support for a range of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, commercial transactions, corporate affairs, employment issues, intellectual property, and litigation matters, all pertaining to Boeing’s operations within the region.  
 
Previously, Neeta has also served as the group general counsel for EFG Hermes, a leading financial services firm in the Middle East and North Africa region. In this role she directed the global legal operations for the company and its diverse range of business lines. Neeta played a pivotal role in facilitating EFG’s expansion, taking its operations from seven countries up to 14 countries. This growth was achieved through a strategic combination of greenfield operations, acquisitions, and joint ventures.  
 
Before her role at EFG Hermes, Neeta served as the group general counsel at Ideal Standard in Brussels, where she headed operations across 27 countries. Additionally, she held the position of regional counsel, Southeast Asia, with PepsiCo in Hong Kong, further broadening her experience and expertise in the corporate and legal domains.  
 
Neeta started her legal career in New York, where she specialised in corporate transactional law, amassing over eight years of experience while working with firms such as King & Spalding and Clifford Chance. Her tenure in the legal field in New York laid a strong foundation for her future endeavours. Neeta holds law degrees from both the University of Cambridge and New York University, and earned an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, further demonstrating her qualifications and expertise in the legal and business fields.