About

An engineering and construction projects sector legal expert, Ritankar Sahu also excels in anti-corruption investigations and management of distressed assets. He serves on the board of directors of the Maxpower – Mitsui & Co joint venture which operates power assets in Myanmar. This combination of specialised legal expertise – honed through senior in-house and private practice roles (he previously practiced at Norton Rose) – and commercial capability has held him in good stead throughout his career and puts him among the top general counsel in the region. His prior employment with Jacobs Engineering Group between 2012 and 2017 was his first in-house role and allowed him to reach a significant professional milestone while setting a highly impressive company record in the process, becoming one of Jacobs’ youngest regional counsel: ‘This elevation pivoted me to a regional management team where business governance counsel is valued; boards do not want to hear “blocking” lawyers telling them what can’t be done. You also cannot be a “yes man”, however you will have to constantly stretch yourself to find out “that” innovative solution to a problem. This role laid out the fundamentals for a senior management position and tutored me in the nuances of the bigger game, and in turn laid the foundation for my current role with Maxpower’. With Maxpower, Sahu has worked tirelessly to move the capabilities of the company’s legal team forward, making it a more proactive component of the company’s corporate makeup in the process. ‘It is a standard notion among business people that legal teams be viewed as contract reviewers and contract negotiators’, he says. ‘Early on into the role I realised that if I did not change this perception, I would not have long term success in the role. I spent an inordinate amount of time socialising the “why” with everyone from the receptionist to the c-suite. A year and eight months down the line, I would say that I have made significant progress and people in the company at all levels now have much better clarity of what me and my team does and the company welcomes the general strategy and public affairs counsellor role of the legal department’. The team has been extremely successful of late. ‘As we speak’, Sahu says, ‘I am very pleased to state that the company has embarked on a massive turnaround plan and has been successful in doing a capital raise which includes an in-progress equity/debt restructuring exercise and settling a complex FCPA matter. This overall turn-around exercise (which is on-going) involved managing several of the world’s largest law firms, a group of close to fifteen heavyweight lenders, three of the big four accounting firms and multiple cross border regulators’. That he has achieved success in such a demanding environment while mastering a number of complex skills at such a relatively young age displays the talent and dedication that has hallmarked Sahu’s career.