Ramesh Kumar Maali — previously at Enel Green Power as senior manager, legal and corporate affairs — has taken over as head of legal at Vedanta FACOR.
Maali, who brings more than nine years of experience as in-house counsel in Indian and multinational companies, has worked with organisations including the Gas Authority of India (GAIL), the National Hydroelectric Corporation (NHPC), Enel Green Power and Eastern Book Company.
“After working with CPSEs [central public sector enterprises] like GAIL and NHPC, I was looking for opportunities with sectors other than I have already worked with,” said Maali who found the opportunity on the social media site LinkedIn and applied for the role.
His expertise spans legal risk analysis, dispute prevention, and managing high-value contracts and disputes in the power, gas, hydrocarbons and renewable energy sectors.
Speaking on his new role, Maali told India Business Law Journal, “I see the in-house legal function as a key business enabler. Therefore, the top priority is to develop a legal department, which is a strategic partner being involved in business decision-making to achieve long term business goals.
“This will include fostering integration with senior leadership at group level, motivating colleagues to lead and take larger responsibilities, policy and process development and capacity enhancement.”
The key responsibilities of this role include leading the “legal, compliance and regulatory affairs functions and to ensure legal risk is prevented and mitigated without diluting the larger business and commercial objectives”, he added.
Maali will be in charge of enabling internal and external stakeholders to ensure timely legal and regulatory compliance.
