Team size: Six

Key team members: Lukas Zapletal (General Counsel, Bottling Investment Group (Global)); Andrew Liew (General Counsel, Bottling Investment Group for Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei); Nurul Atiqah Zaini; Debi Phuah

Major legal advisers: Rajah & Tann, Christopher & Lee Ong, Thomas Philip, ZICO Law, Dharmen Sivalingam & Partners

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos, and give us a breakdown of what makes your legal team function so well?

According to Andrew Liew (General Counsel, Bottling Investment Group for Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei): “Whilst as a brand we are best known for our beverages, many people are unaware of the immense belief by the leadership in investing in its people and technology for the future. It is due to this belief that the brand has not just survived, but thrived for 137 years. By investing in its talents in the legal team, the team has evolved to be a strong pillar of the enabling functions. In addition, each member of the team is embedded as a functional leader within their respective business pillars. In particular, the senior legal counsel, Nurul Atiqah Zaini and Debi Phuah, have provided strong leadership to their respective stakeholders to win in the market.”

The legal team has been recognised as one of the most innovative and progressive business teams in the industry, with focal points on the following areas to build for the future.

Firstly, establishing SIMA as a talent hub by developing and building talents across the Bottling Investments Group (BIG), including bringing in short-term assignees from across BIG, to providing mentorship to talents across BIG. Secondly, the team has been prioritising digitalisation and transformation, whereby the legal team has been recognised for its strengths in technology, eB2B, strategic and tactical execution Finally, we have expended great efforts to grow our strategic engagement with external stakeholders.

Apart from providing business leadership across the company, the team has also been recognised for being amongst the leading in-house legal teams spearheading internal initiatives in competition law, technology, privacy, cybersecurity, generative AI, robotic process automation (RPA), supply chain management and environmental matters.