Enterprise GC 25-26 April 2022

STEPHEN ADAMS

Director, Global Counsel

Stephen is a Senior Director at Global Counsel. Over the last twenty years, Stephen has worked as a policy adviser on international trade and the EU single market in the European Parliament, as an advisor in DG Trade in the European Commission and an adviser to the British Secretary of State for Business. He was also an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London, where he worked on political risk in cross border M&A and supply chain design. Stephen is an Honorary Senior Research Associate in the School of Politics at University College London, where he lectures on contemporary aspects of public-policymaking, international trade policy and trade and investment politics.

At Global Counsel he chiefly supports the trade, investment and financial services policy practices, with a focus on industrial and trade policy, supply chain design and corporate internationalisation. He works with senior leaders in many GC clients to deepen and develop their engagement with public policymaking.

MARIA CONNOLLY

Partner, TLT

Maria is head of Real estate at TLT and leads TLT’s cross-discipline clean energy team. She is also executive board sponsor for TLT’s sustainability strategy; under her sponsorship, the firm has set an ambitious target to be a carbon neutral organisation by 2025, engaged Carbon Intelligence to help develop an ambitious sustainability programme, and entered several sustainability-focused partnerships including with Forest Green Rovers, Green Britain Foundation, The Chancery Lane Project and Action Net Zero.

SIMON CROXFORD

General counsel, investment bank and EMEA , UBS

Simon Croxford recently returned to Swiss banking giant UBS after 13 years at Barclays, where he rose to one of the most senior legal positions as GC of Group Centre Legal. Back at UBS, Croxford has taken the position of investment bank and EMEA GC, leading a team of about 200 lawyers. His team covers sales and trading, equities, fixed income, capital markets, M&A advisory, research, corporate transactions, regulation and legal documentation.

LAURA FIELD

Senior Director, SSQ

Laura is a Senior Director and leads the UK in-house legal search team of SSQ, a leading global search and recruitment consultancy. SSQ works with law firms and leading brands within commerce and industry and financial services to build their legal and compliance teams. Laura and her team are committed to providing straight forward and bespoke recruitment strategies to best suit each mandate.
Laura joined SSQ in 2007 to launch its in-house business and has experience of working with clients, often over many years and counselling senior lawyers on their career strategy. Laura provides clients with market intelligence on matters involving recruitment, retention and salary advice and is proud to represent SSQ in market initiatives such as the General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion.

TREVOR FAURE

CEO, Smarter Law Solutions

Faure advises law firms & legal departments on performance & efficiency improvement. Author of “Smarter Law: transforming busy lawyers into business leaders”

“One of the most creative and systematic thinkers about contemporary business law”, Ben W. Heineman, former General Electric GC.

A GC since 1990, Faure led existential change at:

• EY Global GC through $60Bn Lehman collapse and Madoff fraud
• Tyco International – turnaround team after the Kozlowski scandal almost led to an Enron-style collapse.
• Dell EMEA – “Dellionaire” rocket-ride from No.7 to No.1 worldwide.
• Apple EMEA – from loss-making spiral to Steve Jobs turnaround.

VANESSA HAVARD-WILLIAMS

Global Head of ESG, Linklaters

Vanessa Havard-Williams is a founding partner and leader of the firm’s global ESG practice.  She has extensive experience advising on governance, policies and management plans, compliance systems, human rights and sustainability issues, environmental and product safety, transactional and contentious environmental and safety advice.  She is also an expert on international soft law sustainability standards.

Vanessa is recognised internationally in legal directories as an expert in the areas of environmental law and governance, and human rights, for her intellect and gravitas, her breadth of experience in compliance and crisis management and the ability to help clients deal with complex issues. Clients praise her breadth of knowledge, experience and level of engagement in difficult situations.

She is also a member of the UK Government’s Export Credit Advisory Group in relation to environmental, social and climate issues applicable to UK Export Finance.

JAMES KERR

Bestselling Author and High Performance Expert, Author

James Kerr is a catalyst for change.

A writer, speaker, coach, and consultant, he specialises in leadership, culture and mindset in high performing teams.
His global bestseller, Legacy, has been translated into a dozen languages and sold nearly a million copies. It has been described as ‘seminal’ by the Times, while the Daily Telegraph called it ‘the modern version of Vince Lombardi’s guides to coaching’, saying that ‘for those searching for genuine keys to team culture, it is manna from heaven.’

He is a mental skills coach for an FA Cup winning Premier League team and advised the England Cricket Team in the lead up to their World Cup win. He has worked in Formula One, America’s Cup, Major League Baseball, and with Team GB Olympic athletes. Kerr has also advised Seal Team 6, the US Army Rangers, Delta Force, the Green Berets, the Gurkhas, the Special Boat Service, and the SAS.

His corporate clients include Google, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co, Red Bull, Dyson, PayPal, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Raffles, adidas, and HSBC.

He is currently working on The Legacy Workbook – what performance psychology can teach us about the business of winning.

He lives in London but works around the world.

ELLIE MULHOLLAND

Director, Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative

Ellie Mulholland is Executive Director of the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), where she leads a radical collaboration between partner organisations across the globe, including Oxford University, environmental law charity ClientEarth and commercial law firm MinterEllison. Since its launch by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in 2015, the CCLI has been at the forefront of legal research and stakeholder engagement on the intersection of climate and biodiversity risk and companies and securities laws.

As an Australian-qualified lawyer, Ellie is a Senior Associate at MinterEllison, the largest commercial law firm in Asia Pacific, where she advises government entities and corporations across a diverse range of sectors on climate change liability risk management and disclosure.

Ellie is on the Steering Committee of The Chancery Lane Project, a global initiative to re-wire contracts and laws for climate action, and on the Technical Working Group for the Climate Disclosure Standards Board. She assisted the World Economic Forum with its effective climate governance initiative, authoring the legal chapter of the white paper that was launched at Davos in January 2019. Other recent publications include a chapter in Sustainability and Financial Markets published by the Dutch Central Bank and the Rabound University OO&R Business and Law Research Centre, and a chapter in the second edition of the Wiley Handbook on Board Governance. Ellie was Editor of volume 36 of the Monash University Law Review, which included a special issue on climate change. With degrees in law, finance and philosophy from Oxford University, Monash University and the Australian National University, Ellie brings an inter-disciplinary skill-set to complex challenges.

RACHEL PEARS

Inclusion & Diversity Lead / Internal Employment Counsel, RPC

Rachel Pears is an experienced employment lawyer whose passion for inclusion and diversity (I&D) work led her to become RPC’s full time Inclusion and Diversity Lead.

As well as providing employment law advice to the firm, she is responsible for running RPC’s eight inclusion and diversity ‘work streams’ (staffed with over 70 individuals from across the firm, covering gender, disability, ethnicity, mental health, caring responsibilities, social mobility, LGBT+ and faith), 100+ Allies network, mentoring schemes and the firm’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Rachel combines her commercial-minded approach to employment law with her personal and professional experience to drive I&D agenda forward. She regularly runs in-house training sessions for clients on a variety of equality matters and is a member of a number of forums and networks to continue to find inspiration for ways to make our workplaces more inclusive and supportive.

KRITI SHARMA

Head of Product, Legal Practice & Productivity, Thomson Reuters

Kriti is an innovator, product leader, and a global voice on AI and its impact on society. She was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for advancements in technology.

She is a Google Grace Hopper Scholar. Her TED talk has been viewed more than two million times, leading a global movement on AI for Good. In 2017, Kriti founded AI for Good, an organisation that’s using AI and data to help solve some of the toughest global challenges of our time, such as violence, climate crisis, and mental health.

She was included in the Financial Times most influential BAME leaders in tech list.

At Thomson Reuters Kriti is focused on bringing together multiple legal tech solutions in an easy, connected, and open platform delivering superior user experience and usability.

Kriti’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kritisharma3/

TIMO SPITZER

Head of Legal Corporate and Investment Banking Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Nordic Countries, Banco Santander, S.A.

Timo Matthias Spitzer is an internationally acclaimed and purpose-oriented Head of Legal. He worked at three major banks and three leading international law firms. Timo is dually qualified as Rechtsanwalt (Germany) and Solicitor (England & Wales) with a First Class Honors LL.M. in International Economic Law from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is a native German, fluent in English, French, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish. Timo is currently Banco Santander’s Head of Legal Corporate and Investment Banking for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordic Countries. He is also a Board Member and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Law and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt in a global Top 10 Master program for banking, finance and securities law as recognised by LL.M. Guide from 2018 to 2021. Timo is Chairman of The Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist Germany Advisory Board and a Member of the General Counsel Leadership Circle and Advisory Board Member of the German Institute for Legal Departments and Corporate Lawyers (diruj) as well as of Deutscher AnwaltSpiegel, Business Law Magazine, Going Digital Magazine and Sustainable Value Magazine. He is the author of “The Importance of Human Leadership with Integrity in a Highly Regulated and Tech-Reliant Corporate Environment” as published by Harvard Business Law Review (February 2020). Timo is a keynote speaker at reputable conferences (e.g., at Harvard Law School).

KELLY THOMSON

Partner, employment lawyer, RPC

Kelly Thomson is a partner in the employment, engagement and equality practice at law firm RPC. She has two decades experience supporting organisations delivering a vast array of people projects with a particular focus on organisational change and restructuring. Kelly co-hosts acclaimed podcast The Fix with Michelle King which explores innovations and actions to advance equality in the workplace and beyond.

She was a finalist for Solicitor of the Year in the 2019 First 100 Years’ Inspirational Women awards in recognition of her work in the field of gender equality and is listed in the Class of 2021 in Law.com/Legal Week’s 2021 Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards as an “Innovative Leader”.

PAUL WATCHMAN

Special Legal Adviser to UNEPFI, QWC

Paul Watchman is Special adviser to the UN Environment Programme Financial Initiative and a leading authority on ESG. He has been highly influential in the development of policy, business and financial practice, national and international legal norms and voluntary codes and standards. For this work he was named by Ethical Corporation with Hank Paulson, former United States Secretary of the Treasury, as one of the six most influential global figures in the development of sustainable finance.

Through his long association with the UN, he closely scrutinises law firms and their developing ESG practices. He has acted as Legal Counsel and Special Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme Financial Initiative (UNEPFI) on a number of projects and previously led the Freshfields pro bono team and was the principal author of the UN report on fiduciary duties.

ELEANOR WEAVER

CEO, Luminance

Eleanor is a former director at world-leading cyber-AI company, Darktrace, where she spent six years as global head of the organisation’s industrial division. Prior to this, Eleanor founded and ran Darktrace’s African operations. With a wealth of experience in scaling fast-growing technology businesses, Eleanor oversees Luminance’s product development and leads the company’s continued global expansion. In recognition of her work in the technology sector, Eleanor won the prestigious ‘Innovation Trailblazer Award’ at Law.com’s 2021 Legal Innovation Awards and made Management Today’s ’35 under 35’ list.

MATT WILSON

General Counsel, Fremantle

Matt Wilson is general counsel at British TV production multinational Fremantle. Before joining Fremantle in 2021 he spent six years Uber, most recently leading its legal teams across EMEA & APAC as Associate General Counsel. Among the key challenges Wilson faced was the launch of UberPool; obtaining regulatory change in countries across EMEA; launching Uber Eats; and working to achieve renewal of Uber’s private-hire operator licence in London after TfL initially refused to renew it in September 2017.

Director, Legal – Commercial Affairs, Virgin Media O2