About

As the group legal innovation officer, Maurus Schreyvogel drives peak in-house legal department performance and accelerates functional innovation. At Novartis, his focus is on the corporate legal department’s best practices and future needs, as well as the application of technologies to increase value to the business while driving down cost and fostering a globally connected culture. Schreyvogel’s journey at Novartis started in the corporate IP department in 2004, when he joined as a trademark attorney and over the years has worked his way up into a number of roles. After this and early in his career he transitioned to a two-year rotation in finance and audit, and in 2009 he joined the corporate legal department as program manager. ‘During this assignment I got deep insights into many different functions across the globe and got to appreciate the importance of cultural difference, scalability and operational effectiveness’, says Schreyvogel. In his role as program manager, he led strategic, cost-saving legal and IP initiatives such as the implementation of a global spend management program, preferred law firm panels, and the introduction of legal knowledge and matter management. In 2013 he took responsibility for legal operations and operational excellence, and between 2015 and 2017 he served as chief of staff to the group general counsel. As a member of the group legal leadership team, he has established an expert team that provides support to Novartis’ lead lawyers that run large structuring matters, vendor management, usage of technology and other project management aspects. Besides working within the Novartis environment he is actively contributing to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) where he acts as region head for DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). He also chairs closed-door groups with legal operations topics both in Switzerland and the US. He also contributes to the operationalising innovation initiative of the centre on the legal profession of the Harvard Law School.