Steven Albrecht

· Strategic Client Engagement:Prioritize engagement with key strategic clients, vendors, software providers and third party suppliers to foster robust business relationships.

· Contract Negotiation: Lead strategically important contract negotiations and critically evaluate new business engagements with clients, vendors, and subcontractors to ensure mutual benefit.

· Risk Management: Collaborate with internal parties to mitigate business risks and align commercial interests with legal considerations through performance evaluations.

· Cost Out: Implemented uniform contracts across all third-party suppliers, resulting in over $2 million in business savings.

· Process Improvement for Collaboration: Formulate and implement processes that bolster cross-functional partnering between the Commercial Team and other business units, thereby sustaining strong alliances with business stakeholders and senior management.

· Policy and Process Development: Create and draft commercial policies, processes, and best practices for the business, advising on their correct implementation within the business.

· Leadership Excellence: Formed and led a dedicated Commercial Team of five members in the business.

· Training and Policy Communication: Conduct working group sessions with other business stakeholders to determine pain points and roadblocks and ensure better ways of working and outcomes for the business.

Initiate training sessions for employees and presented policy and process details to senior leadership, ensuring comprehensive understanding across the organisation.

· Contractual Documentation: Create Commercial Team website and internal document library. Draft and maintain a collection of standard commercial contract templates and RFx documents to streamline business transactions.

· Legal Support: Offer consistent support to internal and external legal counsel, facilitating legal processes and compliance.

· Performance Management: Conduct regular team and individual assessments and provide mentoring to each team member to enhance individual performance.

· Talent Acquisition and Development: Recruit and interview prospective team members and cultivate an environment that empowers them to contribute effectively towards achieving key business goals.

· Advised on a wide range of legal matters, including negotiating and drafting a wide range of contracts - Telecommunications Services, IT and Call Centre Managed Services, Data Centre and Cloud based Services, IoT Services, As-a-Service contracts e.g. SaaS, TaaS, IaaS etc, Software Licencing, TV-on-Demand and Video-on-Demand Licencing (e.g. MGM, Fox, Universal), NZ Cricket, English Premier League) Data Analytics Services, Teaming Agreements, NDAs, Escrow Agreements and Parent Company Guarantees.

· Primary commercial and legal point of contact for an array of Enterprise clients, overseeing weekly WIP meetings, monthly commercial governance meetings, coordinating multifaceted internal stakeholder teams, and aligning Supplier and back-to-back agreements to ensure seamless service delivery to clients.

· Experience of technology agreements within multiple sectors – Enterprise, Banking (e.g. Westpac, ASB, ANZ), Insurance (e.g. Chubb, Suncorp) Government, Small/Medium Business and quasi-governmental entities (e.g. District Health Boards, City Councils, Rail etc.). Acted on behalf of Spark Sport in negotiations with entities like the England Cricket Board and English Premier League football.

· Identified and assessed commercial and legal risks on deals, providing innovative solutions to achieve stakeholder satisfaction.

· Contributed to bid strategy by forming scope and contract terms, coordinating with subject matter experts and product owners.

· Drafted and reviewed standard and bespoke agreements, coordinating back-to-back Supplier agreements to align with client-facing agreements.

· Ensured responses are aligned with company policy, guidelines, and best practice.

· Highlighted obligations and provided summaries on contractual obligations and risks.

· Liaised with external solicitors, attended internal governance meetings, and provided guidance to project board meetings.

· Led face-to-face contract negotiations with clients and suppliers through to execution.

· Took the lead on creating precedents and contractual agreements library, creating best practice memos and updates on relevant legal developments to client departments.

· Provided training to Bid and Sales teams on best practice and commercial do’s and don’ts.

· Contributed to knowledge sharing and worked with internal stakeholders on methods to improve and deliver more efficient Commercial support.

• Legal lead in submitting a winning bid and subsequent negotiation of a Strategic Partnership Agreement with multiple parties, worth $100 million, to manage the outsourcing of a customer’s IT functions, services and infrastructure
• Legal lead in submitting a winning bid and subsequent negotiation of a Joint Venture Agreement, worth $110 million, to manage the outsourcing of a customer’s IT functions, services and infrastructure.