September Edition 2019

27 GC in the Spotlight Michal Arlosoroff SVP, General Legal Counsel, Company Secretary & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, Adama Michal Arlosoroff With a heritage going back more than 70 years, ADAMA is one of the largest companies in the USD 60 billion global crop protection industry and the only integrated Global-China crop protection company, with sales in 2018 of USD 3.9 billion. ADAMA is the 6th largest agricultural chemicals company in the world and the world’s leading provider of off-patent crop protection products. We caught up with its Senior Vice President, General Legal Counsel, Company Secretary & CSR Officer, Michal Arlosoroff Having joined ADAMA in 2007, what drew you to work in-house? What initially drew you to the practice of law? Michal: As a young student, I had chosen law for a combination of reasons, among them an idealist sense of justice, putting things in order and doing things in the right manner. That stayed with me in private practice too, but I also very much wanted to work for an industrial company to see clearly from the other side the legal and commercial issues they faced on a daily basis. Working at ADAMA, what is particularly interesting and unique is that spanningboth the agricultural and chemical industries raises somany complex issues, from environmental to regulatory, commercial to contentious, which are both challenging and enjoyable to address. Also, I wanted to be involved both with decision making as a manager, as well as in providing service to a global public company, which involved many corporate governance and stock market reporting and the like. What is the biggest thrill for you as GC? Michal: I relish the diversity of work that comes up at ADAMA. I now have to make decisions both as a GC and a member of the management board. Being part of a huge conglomerate, which was owned by IDB before and is now owned by ADAMA ltd. a subsidiary of ChemChina since 2017. I like that there is so much diversity to what we do, and I am involved in commercial, M&A, corporate governance and compliance, IP, operational aspects, HR, crisis management, insurance, energy, environmental and any litigation, just to name a few things. I also manage the Patent team at ADAMA, which includes 14 patent attorneys globally a very exciting and unique topic for it involves chemistry, science as well as legal aspects.