Key team members: Legal – John Gao, regional legal director ASEAN, Vincent Chong, head of legal (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore), Leah Sebastian, head of legal (Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), Richard Bangras, legal director special projects, Alex Choi, corporate affairs director Korea, Twincy Cheng, senior legal counsel (supply, manufacturing and Japan), Lea Low, Paralegal, Zhong Han Lee, law reform and policy associate (internship).
Compliance – Chin Pheng Lee, regional compliance director ASEAN, Rio Bramantya, compliance manager (Indonesia), Sineenard Deesamut, compliance manager (Thailand), Thanh Pham Xuan, compliance manager (Vietnam), Dennis Odra, compliance manager (Philippines), Regina Tan, compliance manager (Malaysia, Singapore), Melisa Goh, compliance analyst

Introduction on team ethos:

Reckitt is a multi-national FMCG company that manufactures nutrition, health and hygiene products. Our corporate mission is the relentless pursuit to protect and nurture a cleaner and healthier world. Our goal is to ensure access to hygiene, wellness, and nourishment goods becomes a right not a privilege.

Reckitt manufactures and distributes a broad portfolio of products, spanning from highly regulated items such as infant formula, over-the-counter medications, and medical devices like Enfamil, Strepsils, Gaviscon, Nurofen, and Durex, to everyday consumer goods like Dettol, Lysol, Harpic, Veet, Vanish, Air Wick, and Finish. Across our ASEAN operations, we oversee offices in eight countries, which also include Korea and Japan. Additionally, we manage export operations to four more countries, and we operate eight factories that manufacture products for both the ASEAN and global markets. Our state-of-the-art infant formula facility in Singapore plays a crucial role in addressing the shortage of infant formula in the US.

The ASEAN legal and compliance team is guided by the principles of the “3 C’s” – Confidence, Co-creation, and Competitive Advantage, all while upholding our core company value of always doing the right thing. Given the size and nature of our business, we have a lean legal and compliance team. To maximise our effectiveness, we believe we need to remain ruthlessly focused on the matters that add value, as defined by our three C’s.

‘Confidence’ is focused on driving confidence within our team, particularly on matters of compliance and doing the right thing. Reckitt operates in some of the most highly regulated categories, and the confidence of our business teams in navigating those regulations is critical to our business success. The team plays a crucial role in enhancing our team’s understanding of these rules and their practical application to formulate winning strategies. To achieve this, we created specialised training and workshop programs that not only educate on the rules but also focus on the development of winning strategies within them.

‘Co-creation’ ensures that our teams are actively engaged from the ideation phase of key strategic projects. Often, legal and compliance teams are only brought in at the end of a project to approve or reject contracts or initiatives, which limits their value contribution. In order to co-create, collaborate, and genuinely add value, our teams need to be closely aligned with business priorities, understanding the strategic significance of projects, and understanding their key advantages and risks. By working together with the business teams from the ideation stage, we aim to deliver maximum value for these strategic projects.

Competitive advantage ensure that we partner our business teams with an awareness of the market in a competitive context. We are not solely focused on compliance, but on complying in a way that allows us to win. We are not just processing distributions or supply agreements but designing them in a way that gives our business he capabilities to win. With our mission to ensure access to hygiene, wellness, and nourishment goods becomes a right not a privilege, we also play a role in removing barriers to the availability of our hygiene, wellness, and nourishment products across the region.

Our commitment to the three C’s allows our business the freedom to succeed while maintaining our core value of always doing the right thing.