Finance Monthly Global Awards 2018 Edition

Energy and also the LNG sectors of Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and European regions for the past 17+ years and has been with ENGIE since the beginning of 2010. When Nicole first joined ENGIE in 2010 she acted as the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Finance Legal for ENGIE’s South Asia, Middle East and Africa region and shortly thereafter was appointed to also act as the Global Team Leader for ENGIE’s Structured Network for Financing Agreements (covering Middle East, United Kingdom, Turkey, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and Latin American regions). Since the beginning of 2016, Nicole has now been acting as the Associate Director of Strategy & Economic Development for the Global Centralised Generation business of ENGIE. Where she applies her core legal and finance skills in a broader business, strategic and commercial sphere with respect to centralised generation – an essential part of both ENGIE’s portfolio of assets and the global energy sector. As a result of Nicole’s international energy and legal experience, she was also appointed in 2016 to the core working committee and as a Project Director for the global solar Terrawatt Initiative (TWI). TWI is a global independent non-profit foundation launched out of COP21, that promotes solar development. Nicole also co-leads the TWI & International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) global ‘Solar Energy Standardisation Initiative’, which aims at standardising contracts to streamline the global development and financing of solar projects and animate a high level of public & private dialogue between core stakeholders globally in an open, innovative and collaborative environment, to work out how best to achieve acceleration of solar to meet the objectives set via the “Sustainable Development Goals’ and the ‘Paris Agreement’. Nicole has had the privilege and rare opportunity to have advised, negotiated and managed during her career to date, the successful structuring, executionanddelivery of many of the leadingenergy global annual ‘Deals of the Year’ within the industry over the past decade and a half (including, many of the leading energy deals executed within the UAE and the Middle East region). Very few professionals in the industry have had such an opportunity and consistent regular exposure to such high calibre of deals. Not only has Nicole been part of such deals, but also at the forefront of the strategies, negotiation, structuring and closing of such leading energy related deals. Her experience, knowledge and lessons learnt from the legal and energy sectors are highly respected and recognised in the industry by both her professional peers and clients. Nicole has worked in the past as a foreign legal practitioner in Japan and has the professional qualifications as a Solicitor in England & Wales, Practitioner of the High Court of Australia and a Barrister & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. She is a regular speaker at various global energy & finance conferences, including as part of the Global Finance and also Global Power Panels of legal experts for the International Bar Association (IBA). She has also been appointed by her peers as an official member of the IBA Power Law Committee. It is not often the industry comes across a professional who in their career to date has had such a depth of unique, high calibre and leading international energy infrastructure experience as Nicole and she says she “still has a lot more she would like to be part of, contribute too and achieve, within the industry.” How do you think the value of legal skills and the understanding of risk management, has progressed in recent years within the corporate sector? In the past, it was often perceived that if one studied law and became a lawyer, then their only career option within the corporate world was to add value in a pure in-house legal role & capacity. However, over the past decade the way international business has developed and with the increased complexity of transactional issues, lawyers have had to become more commercial and business oriented in their focus, to maximise their contribution within the international corporate and energy sectors. Because of this (which is an element I have always thoroughly enjoyed & welcomed from an early stage of my career), it has now meant that lawyers, due to their highly regarded core legal training and commercial understanding, are starting to become more recognised as parties with a skill set that can also add value in other ways. Professional peers from a legal background are now being supported & recognised by companies and executives for also their commercial, business & strategic acumen, and in particular, their strong negotiation, communication, analytical and risk assessment skills. There is now an increased recognition that with such core skill set, we can add additional value to a company via other areas of decision making within the business and in the strategic formation of the future direction of a company, beyond a pure in-house legal function. We are seeing colleagues in the industry who may have started their career as a lawyer (such as myself) but now being given opportunities to move into other strategic, commercial and senior management roles within a company. However, despite this recent progression - we continue to use our core legal skills, experience and training, but now can do so in a more broader business and commercial sphere, unrestricted from adding value purely through a legal department function only. As a long-standing and reputable voice in the energy legal sector, what advice do you have for others who want to pursue this path? The best piece of advice I can offer to other professionals in the legal and energy sector is - “make sure you explore different things during your career; discover what your true passion and interests are, and then once you have found your areas of focus within work, dig deep. It is this passion that will drive your ability to work hard and have the determination to achieve and make positive contributions. Gather all your courage and believe in yourself. Make sure you have a good support network around you and most of all, make the best of every opportunity.” Q Q Finance Monthly Global Awards 2017 www.finance-monthly.com 99 UAE