GC Influencers
Most Influential GCs - Saudi Arabia
Lawrence M Harnett of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)
Lawrence Harnett has served as vice president and general counsel of SABIC since November 2009. He also sits on the Board of Directors of SABIC Americas and leads the company’s global legal affairs team. After graduating with a Juris Doctorate degree at UCLA, he practised for 15 years at two major law firms in New York. Harnett then became the general counsel of the Innovative Plastics unit of General Electric Plastics, which was subsequently incorporated into SABIC.
Harnett is currently overseeing the acquisition of SABIC by Saudi Aramco, which is being enacted through Aramco’s procurement of a 70% stake in SABIC via the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. This acquisition spans across 23 jurisdictions and has a record value of USD69.1 billion.
Most Influential GCs - Global-wide
Lawrence M Harnett of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)
Lawrence Harnett serves as general counsel to Saudi manufacturing and industrials giant SABIC, having been appointed to the role in 2009 after previously taking charge of GE Plastic’s legal department during its USD11.6 billion sale to SABIC in 2007. His role encompasses a broad scope of regulatory compliance-related issues and wider commercial and transactional legal mandates across SABIC’s business lines, spanning polymers, chemicals, metals and agricultural products, and its operations in more than 50 countries. Harnett also faces the added challenge of the proposed sale of a majority stake in the company by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, to Saudi Aramco, in what could potentially be Saudi Arabia’s largest M&A deal in history. Harnett can, however, rely on a solid track record in transactional mandates, having overseen a number of project financing, joint ventures and wider M&A deals across his tenure.