As the executive ESG sponsor, Zi Yao advances the company’s ESG agenda, focus areas and goals, and as the youngest member of the Executive Leadership Team, he is instrumental in driving AI governance and innovation.  He led a global legal-tech roadmap that launched centralized Legal SharePoint services and in-house tools now supporting more than 2,800 employees with improved access to policies, templates and workflows. 

In a major Lockbit ransomware incident, he spearheaded a multidisciplinary task force to keep operations uninterrupted and aligned with regulatory requirements, coordinated sensitive communications across jurisdictions, and worked with law-enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Dubai, contributing to a successful enforecement takedown. 

Over the past year, he integrated Lean Management tools into legal operations to reduce variability and manual review, benchmarked the department’s legal-tech maturity to guide automation and spend discussions, and deployed Hoshin Planning to reinforce long-term strategy. His stated vision is a proactive, digitally empowered in-house function that embeds lean methods and clear guardrails for AI and cybersecurity, positioning legal as an agile, data-informed partner that leads on ESG, AI and digital transformation for the company’s sustained growth.