What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

We have implemented training on our legal services portfolio – including our new self-help tools, contract management and navigating the finance policy and systems in coordination with the finance team.

Also, we have supported the implementation of our training and compliance program across the region.

Furthermore, we have driven the use of legal technology and automation – using PowerBI and Microsoft Forms we have automated the generation of a standard form letter required frequently from customers, this has expanded to automated NDA generation. We have also created a Legal ChatBot for Frequently Asked Questions (including things like who can sign my contract, where can I get the NDA template from, which legal entity should sign this document) which has more than halved the number of emails the legal team have been receiving on these queries.

Additionally, we have standardised templates for a suite of services, including local language and building a Sharepoint site for the business to access these resources directly. This includes Standard Form Contracts, which are locked other than key commercial terms, which enables the business to contract efficiently without requiring legal review.

Worked with the business to introduce new workflow process to ensure new ancillary services, ancillary fees and surcharges are introduced with clear explanation, sound application logic, and justifiable fee rate.

Created the Legal Shared Service Center in Malaysia with two lawyers supporting the baseline claims and contracts work across the Southeast Asia region (utilising the standardised templates and responses created) with plans for expansion to include the rest of the markets within the Asia Pacific and the MEISA region.

I also lead the sustainability efforts for the Asia Pacific and MEISA regions which has enabled us to drive change with regional autonomy to create projects in support of the global strategy towards our 2040 goals, this included the record breaking cross-border Malaysia to Singapore electric vehicle journey by a logistics provider.

What innovations have you made to the way your legal team works in the past year?

I often ask my team members “How can we do things differently?” “How can we do away with the work that takes up a lot of time but is low risk / low value?” and my team always rises to the occasion. In the past oneyear we have created a legal chatbot for frequently asked questions, that has more than halved the number of emails the team have been receiving on basic questions; we have also taken automation to another level by automating simple letters and now NDAs so that the business can complete a Microsoft Form and have a letter/NDA in their inbox 5 minutes later!

Finally, we created the legal shared service centre in Malaysia where we moved standardised contract, and claims work away from the strategic centre of the team in Singapore to a more cost-effective jurisdiction. This has enabled increased efficiencies through a now used triage tool for requests, so we have a better sense of metrics on performance and utilisation from the SSC in Malaysia as well supporting the team based in Singapore to focus on strategic projects and needle moving work for their respective markets across the Southeast Asia region.

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?

Starting with ‘yes, if’ not ‘no, because’. Legal is usually approached to help solve a problem, sometimes it is a legal question, or a risk-mitigation question, other times it’s genuine business collaboration support. It’s mastering the latter that I think makes a good General Counsel, great. If you can listen to understand the issue, rather than simply listening to answer, your stakeholders will appreciate it. I also think building rapport across cultures is also a key to success, you need to navigate high and low context cultures differently. Being a sounding board, a trusted advisor, always trying to come up with a workable solution even when it is challenging earns you the respect and trust of your business partners.

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?

I am super passionate about sustainability. I have three kids who are all sustainability warriors, one holds a leadership position in sustainability at school and I feel like I live and breathe this every day with my children who are so aware of the impact our actions have on our planet. I have supported beach cleanups and tree planting with my kids through our FedEx Cares events. We have also created other sustainability initiatives like upcycling uniforms, old pallets and turning our trash into treasure – notebooks, caps, furniture, all sorts of things. As a result of demonstrating commitment and drive to our sustainability endeavours, I now lead this workstream for our Asia Pacific and MEISA regions. I have built coalitions across the globe and brought other energetic team members on this journey with me. This has enabled us to build dashboards for our Scope one and two emissions; roadmap the regulatory landscape for reporting and compliance across the region; support the development of commercial solutions and drive the strategy for our 2040 goals.