Can you outline your role in the legal function of your organisation and any significant cases or transactions you were involved in?

Our legal team drives the legal and compliance agenda of BAMEAC organisation covering a geographical area of 75 countries and sales value of more than $700m; I have been particularly responsible on managing sanctions and export controls risk, increasing awareness amongst health care professionals & pharmacies & health authorities to ensure identification of counterfeit and diverted products and collaborate with authorities to take relevant legal actions, reshaping our distribution model across multiple geographies, managing data privacy and anti-trust risks, driving operational efficiencies in key areas such as contracting, document management, audit readiness & digitalisation of our way of working.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving over the next few years?

In the past, the in-house counsel role was mainly providing legal advice and drafting and reviewing agreements. Thankfully this is no longer the case, and the role of in-house counsel has evolved to become more of a strategic business partner that supports the entire organisation and business growth, gets involved in strategic decisions and often shape those, assists in navigating complex challenges, engineers to create the right mindset, create and implement solutions that go beyond providing legal advice.
I believe in the next few years, we will continue to drive this change, developing a business mindset and provide valuable advice that goes beyond legal considerations while also equipping ourselves with the technological developments in the legal operations and working smarter and more agile using technology.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

One of the biggest challenges was navigating and supporting the growth in the organisation with a relatively lean team, considering the broad region consisting of 75 countries in need of different approaches, not to mention navigating different legal jurisdictions and learning the intricacies of each. However, this enabled me to gain the confidence on responding to different needs of different stakeholders and thriving in challenging environments with resilience, and an adaptive and open mind.