Vote 100

Incredible leadership, mentoring and people skills are just some of the reasons why our general counsel, Maaike de Bie has been nominated for our Vote 100 campaign.

Assistant general counsel, Toni Lyng, said: ‘Maaike is very clear in her goals. As well as being a great leader, she is also a real people person and always shows empathy when dealing with colleagues.

‘While she expects us to do our jobs to a high standard, Maaike always looks after us. She has demonstrated strength in reorganising and inspiring the team and changed the culture by allowing colleagues to work in different and more flexible ways.

‘Maaike fixed some difficult problems which she inherited when she took on the job, and for me, this is a major point. She recognised that we had gone through some troubled times and took action. As a result, there is a much more open culture now.

‘Maaike is never afraid to challenge when necessary but she always does so in a way that is collegiate. She has recognised talent and ensured that colleagues have been helped to develop. She has raised our profile and helped us to be recognised for the work we do and how we do it.’

Assistant general counsel, Laura Newton, said: ‘As a qualified coach Maaike is a huge advocate of coaching and mentoring. As well as providing pro bono mentoring through the Aspire Foundation mentoring scheme Maaike uses her coaching skills to great effect by actively encouraging her direct reports to use such techniques with their own teams.

‘Maaike believes that to get the best out of people you have to understand what motivates them and that people in senior roles have a responsibility to nurture and support their teams and to help individuals develop and realise their potential. She is regarded as an outstanding line manager and mentor.

‘Since 2016, Maaike has instilled a vision and strategy that puts the legal function at the heart of helping Royal Mail make good decisions. Learning, development, personal growth, commercial acumen and innovation have been placed at the heart of the team’s ethos.

‘As part of a vison to be “supply led” and give the business access to on demand legal services, Maaike has overseen a 50% growth in the team by opening a new office in Sheffield, while also successfully overhauling the panel of Royal Mail’s external law firms and reducing external legal spend – a huge undertaking that has led to significant cost savings for the business.

‘All in all, Maaike is an inspiring leader for the team and a real asset to Royal Mail.’

In 2018, Maaike won a Legal 500 Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the in-house legal profession. Through her leadership, the Royal Mail Group Legal function itself has also won a slew of awards over the past few years including:

• World’s Leading General Counsels Outstanding Achievement & Excellence in the field of Business Law and Practice 2017
• Legal Week Innovations Award 2017
• Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards 2017
• British Legal Awards Legal Department of the Year (Commerce and Industry) 2017
• Legal Business In House Team of the Year 2015

Maaike is a huge advocate of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Since becoming general counsel, Maaike’s team has raised an astonishing £35,000 for the Rowland Hill Fund. The team regularly volunteers at the Whitechapel Mission for the homeless and is actively involved in helping the Compton Hospice in Wolverhampton and the Cathedral Archer Project in Sheffield.

Maaike has also been instrumental in our summer work experience scheme in which eight prospective lawyers selected from more than 80 applicants spend a week with the business including a day at one of our panel law firms. She has also supported our work with PRIME - an initiative which aims to provide fair access to work experience to students from under-privileged backgrounds.

‘I joined Royal Mail after the initial public offering (IPO) to be part of the transformation,’ said Maaike. ‘It has been an incredible journey and no two days are the same. Besides the constant change, challenge and finding opportunities to make things better, what I most love about Royal Mail is the people.   

‘There is a strong culture of service here, a feeling of being part of something bigger and giving back to the community. We have taken that to heart in our team too. We are here to help Royal Mail make good decisions and to do so in a way that helps the business change, grow and stay with the times, continuing to connect people and communities – something it has done for over 500 years. What a wonderful thing to be a part of.’

Vote 100

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Our Vote 100 campaign is your chance to help us showcase the enormous contribution our women make each and every day both to colleagues and customers, ensuring we remain the UK’s most trusted postal operator.

If there is someone in your workplace who you admire for their outstanding work ethic, their drive to improve their own and others’ skills, their knack for supporting or mentoring others, showing kindness, overcoming obstacles, or influencing positive behaviour – we want to hear from you!

Please send your name and contact details plus the name of the colleague you wish to nominate to either vote100@royalmail.com or Freepost VOTE 100. We will then be in touch to obtain further details.