In early August, Corporate Counsel announced the 2017 list of Transformative Leaders—those women general counsel who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and business acumen as they have guided their organizations through often treacherous roads to achieve success. These Transformative Leadership honorees stand out because they are business strategists, complex problem-solvers, and of course, great lawyers. And as important (especially to them) is that they are great people-leaders—they care more about the success of the team than their individual success.

Tonight we announce the winners as the honorees gather to celebrate each other at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, D.C., during the Women, Influence & Power in Law conference (WIPL) taking place Oct 10-12.

You will see in-depth profiles of the winners later this year in the pages of Corporate Counsel. For now, get snapshots of the honorees who participated in our survey to learn their lessons in leadership.

Ria Sanz, AngloGold Ashanti Limited
EVP – Group Legal, Commercial and Governance, & Company Secretary, 6 Years

Nominated for: GC of the Year

Maria (Ria) Sanz Perez works with her company's business leaders to ensure AngloGold Ashanti complies with legal requirements across the group. She is also responsible for compliance, company secretarial functions, integrated reporting and corporate cost reduction.

What is the best leadership advice you provided to a member of your legal team in the last year and why do you think it was effective?

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but quite the opposite. It shows maturity and desire to succeed. I think that intelligent people often struggle to accept help from others when they need it the most. This team member will make an outstanding GC if she accepts that she cannot resolve all issues herself. I believe that the advice was effective as it came from me and my giving her examples of when I have applied this advice, framed the advice in a positive way rather than as criticism.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you became a General Counsel?

I became GC of a large public company at the age of 32 and in hindsight with very little idea of what I was taking on, which was probably for the best! I had however been lucky to have had a mentor at the start of my career who impacted in the way that my leadership style developed. I have carried those lessons with me, shared them with my teams and believe contributed to my belief that key to success is surrounding oneself with outstanding people and having trust in delegating to them so they can develop. The success of the team is what a leader should be working towards and not of oneself.

If you moved on from your role tomorrow, what contribution do you most want to be remembered for?

I hope to be remembered as someone who acted in accordance with her values, lead from the front, inspired trust and loyalty while expecting excellence from her team and from herself, and left a stronger team in place to successfully take on the challenges that would come at them. People are remembered for who they are and over time less for what they did in a role, as your successor will no doubt change the way you did things but cannot change the memories that others have of you and the lasting impact you had on them.