Context

Ooredoo Group (OG) is one of the fastest growing telecom groups in the world.

Ooredoo Group is focused on managing the Group’s performance, strengthening its global presence and entering selected adjacent markets.

As a result, OG has established a FinTech organisation – Ooredoo Fintech - committed to responsibly building an ambitious and innovative fintech business in the Middle East & North Africa region and beyond

Ooredoo Fintech will act as a parent company and will fully own local fintech subsidiaries in each of the six target markets, which will hold the local regulatory license and permissions.

The operating model is highly centralised, with key functions like HR, Technology, Product, Operations and Marketing, Compliance being designed and led from the central te

am. The local fintech subsidiaries will be responsible for execution of the strategy in the local markets and for running compliant, efficient operations.

Agile co-creation and collaboration with the telecom OpCos will be key for accelerated delivery of a market-leading proposition, consistent branding across markets and use of shared assets (shops, self service machines…) .

As a member of the ExCo, you will be exposed to all the intricacies of a modern, fast growing tech business that is in build mode across all the areas of the business and across multiple markets: from brand to product, from legal and regulatory to people, from technology to compliance, from marketing to finance

The business will invariably be subject to various re-planning exercises as the regulatory processes mature in each target market, hence a few personal ingredients are essential:

• Gravitas, presence and remaining centred on the long term vision.
• Ability to lead teams at scale.
• Ability to think, act and deliver constantly and incrementally.
• Ability to lead and manage a wide array of partners suppliers and colleagues across multiple jurisdictions.
• Demonstrably operating with an attitude that is simultaneously structured, pragmatic, credible & courageous

The Fintech business is run centrally, with a strong focus on innovation & reusability of core capabilities.

Role Purpose

The Chief Legal & Governance Officer is a key member of the ExCo of Ooredoo Fintech. He/she will lead a high performing Legal and Governance team that anticipates and delivers an excellent service to help unlock Ooredoo Fintech’s objectives, while supporting the CEO and Executive.

The Chief Legal & Governance Officer is a business leader with solid track record in building and operating top-class legal & governance functions in the retail financial services industry. As the business is being built from greenfield start ups, carve outs of existing businesses and acquisitions – and there is a clear path to sale or IPO - the role holder will need to have extensive experience of both financial services and corporate activity.

His/her work is instrumental to attract external investors in the business and successfully pass a due diligence process, planned in around 24-36months from now.

The Chief Legal & Governance Officer will create the framework and the foundations for Ooredoo Fintech to monetise the equity stake and crystallise value.

The Chief Legal & Governance Officer will lead a modern function that supports the growth ambition of a innovative, tech business. As such, the Legal function will focus on business outcomes and will operate with high degree of standardisation across countries

The business starts with minimal headcount, capabilities and personnel in 4 out of the six countries, hence the ability to incubate, grow and scale the Legal function is essential.

The business is an in-house scale up, with ambitions growth plans: being experts in the field, credible leaders and having a co-founder attitude to building the business is a must have.

Accountabilities

Deliver a best in class Legal and Governance service in a fast-paced fintech environment – responsible for setting strategic vision and managing implementation. Multi-country business requires a cohesive and non-siloed approach to blending central and local resource.

Partner to the CEO and Executive to facilitate Ooredoo Fintech’s strategy and objectives – responsible for influencing internal (including Board and Ooredoo Group) and external (including investors and regulators) stakeholders,

Ensure governance framework, Board and Committees promote strong oversight and good decision making.

Hire and develop the best, and leverage with processes and tools – building and motivating a best-in-class team is a key deliverable.

Ensure function continuously evolves as Ooredoo Fintech grows and changes – it is critical balance business needs in 6, 12, 18 months as well as the demands of today.

Operational ownership of planning and budget cycles for Legal and Governance functions – ensure sufficient budget is allocated appropriately to deliver on committed objectives

A key part of the Ooredoo Fintech Exco – brings a broader perspective and contribution to the executive team. Participation is not purely as a lawyer.

The Legal and governance function will be built as a full service offering, and the Chief Legal & Governance Officer will be accountable for:

• Corporate Legal – establishing and maintaining entities in each market and supporting Governance requirements, manage contentious matters (whether commercial or regulatory)
• Product and Regulatory – a key partner to the Product and Compliance teams in the development and maintenance of products, features, terms and interactions with regulators in all relevant jurisdictions (both in establishing new business licences and ongoing liaison)
• Mergers and Acquisitions and Joint ventures – support assessing potential targets, designing and negotiating appropriate legal frameworks and preparing for (and leading execution of) exit within 24-36 months (whether IPO or sale)
• Contracts – build and operate an effective process (combining people, process and tools) to ensure all contracts (whether procurement or otherwise) are executed efficiently and within risk appetite
• Governance – establishing and ensuring effective operation of Boards and committees in each jurisdiction and ensuring they operate effectively and exercise appropriate oversight

Leadership

• Be a leader of people
• Be obsessed with structure, value creation & business outcomes
• Lead the monetisation (sale or IPO) process: make Ooredoo Fintech an easy-to-evaluate, modern organisation, ready to attract for external investors
• Bring focus, method and discipline into a multi-country, geographically dispersed team
• Be a role model at all times
• Act pragmatically, and adopt an incremental approach in building and developing the business (incubation phase for the first 6 months, followed by launch, followed by multi country scaling, followed by carve out….)
• Act as a business builder and contribute to the success of the business as a member of a dynamic and inspiring ExCo team

Personal Traits

You’ll need to:

• Be a business leader, with at least 2 decades of experience and proven track record in Legal/Advisory role in retail financial services
• Have a track record of building, leading and continuously improving a multi-country legal function, preferably in a high growth environment (internal scale up within large organisation, start ups or Private Equity backed venture)
• Have a ‘T shaped’ profile - manage delivery of legal and Governance service while being able to dive into detail needed to find solutions and meet stakeholder expectations (this is a fintech – the Exec will understand the law/regulation!)
• Be Arabic and English speaking with strong academics

It would be desirable if you have

• Regional experience
• Built governance frameworks or led a Co Sec function
• Led interactions with regulators and a policy makers in the GCC, UK, EU or US
• Led teams outside of your expertise