Jaco Theunissen, ACTOM’s Group Commercial & Legal Officer, has won the In-House Rising Star Award in the prestigious annual African Legal Awards competition.
Jaco was among a total of 33 award winners in various categories announced in the online virtual awards presentations by the competition organisers, London-based Law.com International, on September 3.
The African Legal Awards, now in its eighth year, is aimed at recognising exceptional achievement by both practising attorneys and corporate legal advisers in Africa.
Jaco was chosen winner from a short-list of seven candidates who had been nominated for the award. The short-list comprised five in-house legal advisers employed by South African corporates and state-owned enterprises and one each from Kenya and Nigeria.
The In-House Rising Star Award is open to in-house legal advisers of 4 to 10 years’ experience who have been afforded the opportunity to participate by their respective corporate legal associations – the association concerned in Jaco’s case and that of the other South African candidates being the Corporate Counsel Association of SA (CCASA).
The candidates were required to submit their CV’s covering their positions, responsibilities and achievements to date, together with supporting documentation, plus a testimonial supplied by a senior executive in their organisation.
Jaco has 10 years’ experience as an in-house legal adviser, having admitted as an attorney and conveyancer in the North Gauteng High Court in 2011 and joining ACTOM in 2012 as Divisional Legal Officer for the Engineering Projects & Contracts division and appointed in 2019 to his present post.
He ascribes his success in winning the award to two things: “Firstly, the priceless opportunities the ACTOM group provides to enable me to apply my skills and expand my experience pertaining to the legal side of contracts in all sectors of industry across the engineering field.”
Secondly, he paid tribute to Annamarie van Wyngaardt, ACTOM’s Group Financial Director, to whom he reports. “The mentorship she gives me in my current position is very valuable and helps me perform my duties as effectively as possible,” he said.
