Making governance a team effort: meet Paula De Lucas, Corporate Legal Manager and Governance Champion
As Corporate and Financial Securities Law Manager within the General Secretariat, Paula manages Soitec’s corporate governance across several key responsibilities. Her work includes supporting the Board of Directors and its specialized committees, as well as leading the group-wide coordination of the Universal Registration Document (URD) and the Annual General Meeting alongside her team.
As the Governance Champion for the ESRS1 G1 and ESRS 2 (Business Conduct and General Disclosures), Paula helps ensure the quality and transparency of the information published. It is a role she carries out in close collaboration with many functions across the Group.
An international career in a human-scale company
Originally from Spain and based in France for more than 15 years, Paula completed a dual master’s degree in French and Spanish law, followed by an MBA in Business Law and Management.
Before joining Soitec, she built extensive legal experience in organizations of different sizes and across a range of industries, including Crédit Agricole, Gemalto - now part of Thales - Sodexo and Tarkett.
What attracted her to Soitec was its dynamic, technology-driven environment, combined with the close connections of a human-scale organization.
“Compared with very large international groups, Soitec offers an environment where you can work closely with people from different functions and see the direct results of what you achieve together,” Paula shares.
Making governance a collective effort
When the CSRD2 was introduced, Paula naturally took on the role of governance expert, building on the non-financial reporting processes already established within the General Secretariat under the DPEF framework.
One of the main challenges was to incorporate more detailed and far-reaching regulatory requirements while meeting the demanding timetable for preparing and publishing the Universal Registration Document.
Meeting the CSRD’s governance requirements involves bringing together several areas of expertise. Paula therefore works with a network of internal experts to provide a complete, accurate and transparent picture of the company’s practices.
She regularly works with Victor Barruol on compliance matters, draws on Loïc Perrache’s cybersecurity expertise, collaborates with Lionel Didier on data protection and consults the Legal Department on export control matters.
Together, these experts ensure that every aspect of governance is documented accurately and reliably.
"Our main task was to determine which governance information needed to be disclosed, check that it met the regulatory requirements and coordinate our internal timetable so that everything would be ready for the publication of the URD," Paula explains.
Developing the indicators and roadmap
The implementation of the CSRD highlighted the need for clear corporate governance indicators, even though defining such metrics is still an evolving practice in many companies.
Working alongside the Sustainability Steering Committee, Paula helped define indicators to improve the monitoring of compliance and risk-prevention measures. One of the main focus areas involves internal training on the Code of Conduct and cybersecurity, where completion rates have steadily reached 90%. Recognizing their key role in protecting the company, Soitec integrated this metric into the criteria for its Long-Term Incentive (LTI) plan.
Since Laurent Rémont’s arrival as CEO, an update to the Code of Conduct has been underway to align its content with the company’s current priorities and challenges. Paula also continues to benchmark Soitec against peer companies to identify new indicators and further advance governance oversight.
Finding purpose in teamwork
When asked what makes her proudest each year, makes her most proud, Paula immediately points to the growing cohesion among the teams involved in regulatory reporting. "Year after year, our team cohesion strengthens," she notes.
"This shared trust makes preparing the Universal Registration Document and meeting CSRD standards a far more dynamic and collaborative process."
For Paula, this team spirit is precisely what gives meaning to her work every day. "What motivates me is working as a team, learning from one another, and maintaining a cross-functional view of the company," she reflects.
"Being open to the perspectives of different functions is essential in a corporate legal role. Working alongside committed colleagues is what makes my job so rewarding every day."
1 European Sustainability Reporting Standards
2 Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
