About

Team size: Four

Major legal advisers: Baker Botts, Cooley, Mewburn Ellis, Norton Rose Fulbright, Stevens & Bolton

Ciaran Rooney has a rare position in that his expertise is spread across two separate businesses. More unusual, however, are his dual roles as GC of Eve Sleep, a mattress manufacturer, and as corporate development director at Rockley Photonics, a supplier of photonics chipsets.

Rooney, an ex-Cooley associate, joined former client Eve Sleep in April 2017, after which he joined Rockley – also a Cooley client. He became GC at Eve at the age of 30 following its initial public offering in May 2017 and, while at Rockley, Rooney and his team of three led on a $42m joint venture in China with a manufacturing company, as well as negotiating and structuring key commercial deals with partners and suppliers. He also mentors and advises various tech companies such as Krowd, Noahs Box, PitchMe and Collective Society from early stage to late stage on their fundraising strategies.

Cooley partner and former colleague Chris Coulter comments: ‘He is changing the paradigm of what it means to be a GC. He is a lawyer and an entrepreneur at the same time.’

Rooney says his legal background is of huge benefit to both his roles: ‘Lawyers have to be able to distil complex problems into digestible and actionable advice and also be able to navigate ambiguity in the law in a way that manages risk. Those skills are very useful when supporting a CEO or CFO, pitching to an investor or explaining and discussing the complex commercial arrangements of a deal.’

The main challenge, however, is that both Eve and Rockley are fast-growth companies, although he believes his private practice experience helps, in that it is essentially akin to having two clients. Both companies are maturing and Rooney’s next 12 months are about moving from laying the foundations to supporting the businesses in getting the most out of the platforms they have now set down.

‘You have to be able to juggle multiple projects that may or may not be interrelated while keeping a clear head and focus on each piece,’ he says. ‘Both companies operate in very different sectors, but there are a lot of similarities in terms of scaling businesses, international operations and fundraising. At both I see my primary role as supporting the CEO and being a trusted adviser to them, often working on complex and fast-moving projects that are pivotal to the business.’