VISHAL KOOVEJEE

• Commercial and Transactional lawyer (common law qualified), Transformation Specialist, Strategist, Technology and Digitization Expert, and Entrepreneur, with over 21 years of professional experience, 15 years of which were spent in senior leadership positions, 11 years at 2 leading corporate commercial law firms, and over 16 years as an entrepreneur.
• A seasoned, passionate, charismatic, and motivated senior commercial and legal strategist with a demonstrated track record and robust experience gained from private practice,in-house positions, and entrepreneurial ventures.
• A tenacious and resilient professional that has served in senior leadership roles gaining significant in-depth exposure to building and managing businesses, and in analyzing, negotiating and structuring, closing and implementing sophisticated commercial transactions / initiatives / projects globally including the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United Kingdom.
• An analytical thinker focused on being a problem solver that is solutions-driven and results oriented, having represented governments, regulators, multinational corporations, listed companies, and a host of start-ups. 
• An innovative leader that is a synergy creator capable of mobilizing and harnessing collaboration of organizational resources and connections, both internally and externally, igniting passion and leveraging the efforts of cross functional teams to achieve timeous and effective results including massive increases in operating profit, business process optimization, improving operational efficiency, effectiveness, competitiveness, and significant improvements in customer experience ratings.
• Ability to take considered proactive decisions swiftly, yet responsibly, in anticipation of rapid-fire developments in technology, along with shifting markets, customer demands, competitive environments and trends in global trade.
• Able to extract maximum value from combining people, data and infrastructure.
• An all-rounded, multi-faceted, dynamic, creative and pro-active individual with an innate entrepreneurial make-up and business acumen, and having gained solid legal, commercial and entrepreneurial exposure across various industries, particularly financial services, technology, telecommunications.
• Specialist in-depth understanding of commercial contracts, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, intellectual property, corporate governance, and regulatory.
• An inspirational leader with excellent communication and people skills enabling effective engagement with all stakeholders and at all levels of organizational structure.

• One of the youngest partners (age 27 years) at a big 5 law firm which is over a century old with more than 150 partners and 700 employees
• Negotiated, concluded and implemented the acquisition by a leading Middle East financial services provider of a significant equity interest (worth USD 70 million) in a leading US based incubator and accelerator focused on technology startups.
• Acted for an international bank in the acquisition (USD 3 billion) of a majority interest in an African bank, one of the largest foreign direct investments into Africa to date. 
• Represented an American based oil company in successfully opposing a merger between 2 leading oil producers valued at over USD 8 billion.
• Advised the new entrant and third mobile telecommunications and technology competitor, with a mandate to provide comprehensive legal and commercial support to the expansion strategy including infrastructure, regulatory licensing, market and product analysis and development, user attraction and retention, and competitive positioning, with a total budget of USD 2 billion.
• Was appointed by one of the largest breweries to provide legal support for the design and implementation of a multi-million digitization strategy aimed at all of the business units and locations globally to transition onto 1 primary platform.
• Taking the lead in assisting a listed technology company and a super dominant firm, in designing and implementing a new operating model which was not only complaint with anti-trust requirements of a super dominant firm in dealings with suppliers and customers, but which entailed setting up a full compliance and governance framework. All commercial agreements with market facing participants were re-engineered ensuring ease of supply of services and growing revenue accordingly. 
• Conducted a comprehensive business audit for a top 2 milk producer (market cap of USD 245 million), which encompassed compiling a transformation strategy for the overhaul of the business and to introduce appropriate technological and digitization processes. 
• Seconded for 18 months to a leading technology and telecommunications business (USD 4.3 billion) to lead the transformation strategy focussed primarily on rationalizing its business so as to facilitate efficient and cost-effective expansion both in its product offering and in terms of its geographic presence. I also architected, designed, developed and implemented an online training and compliance program that was aimed at all levels of staff throughout Africa and was eventually rolled out to over 9 000 staff members.
• Designed, developed and implemented a transformation initiative for one of the largest cola companies in the world which essentially was aimed at its business and people in Africa, and to re-calibrate its market positioning so as to realize business process optimization and increased profitability by maximizing operational efficiencies. 
• Advised a foreign government entity in relation to an acquisition of a minerals project which entailed G to G agreements, engagements with the respective government’s agencies, and obtaining the relevant approvals from regulators. 
• Represented an airline company in relation to various commercial, regulatory and compliance matters, which entailed investigations by several regulators. 
• Appointed by one of the world’s oldest Platinum Group Metals mining companies to conduct a due diligence on its mining and exploration licenses pursuant to the introduction of the Mining Charter, and to implement a rationalization programme to maximize existing and future opportunities. The recommendations adopted resulted in the restructuring of a number of existing mining arrangements including the introduction of black economic empowerment partners through joint ventures and toll mining arrangements. There was also a significant number of mergers and acquisitions that the company made in its consolidation aspirations resulting in one of the largest PGM mining portfolios globally. 
• Advised a German headquartered multinational conglomerate corporation and industrial manufacturing company in relation to its restructure of the competitive strategy and positioning in Africa and the Middle East. 
• An entrepreneur with a solid and robust demonstrated track record of setting up businesses from scratch through to developing them into fairly successful and profitable medium sized enterprises generating total revenue of USD 15 million annually.
• Developed and programmed a fully functional software application (newspaper delivery management tool) in 1994 (age 17), whereafter mentored and advised technology startup companies since 1998 to date.
• Architected, developed and operated 3 software applications in the travel, legal and leisure industries.
• Identified as a young future South African leader by Mail and Guardian in 2007.
• Featured profile and articles in several newspapers, magazines, and journals, and appeared as specialist guest speaker on radio and television, and at various conferences including The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation’s sixth annual Knowledge Summit in 2019, and at Krypto Labs’ Legal Basics for Startups in 2018.

Education and Qualifications

• Admission to the High Court of South Africa – 27 February 2003
• Bachelor of Laws, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (1999 – 2000)
• Bachelor of Arts (Majors Law and Philosophy), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (1996 – 1998)
• 3 Year Software Programming (Matriculation subject), Lenasia Secondary School, South Africa (1992 – 1994)