Meena Sayal is a qualified barrister and has worked in private practice, as a government prosecutor and in-house at companies as diverse as Diageo, Sony Playstation and Unilever. During her eleven years at Unilever, Meena was responsible for developing and delivering Unilever’s first global strategy for brand protection. The approach was focused on counterfeit and other infringing goods and was designed to be integrated into multiple functions such as Supply Chain, Sales, Security, Finance, Business Integrity and Marketing. She assessed need on a global, regional and local basis and delivered operational tools, training and IP and enforcement education to teams around the world working with third parties to innovate where necessary to develop what was required. She has particular knowledge of anti-counterfeiting efforts in China, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and south east Asian markets.
She is a strong supporter of cross-sector collaboration and for the first two years of its existence was the first co-chair (with Maersk) of the group of rights holders and maritime operators who are working together to develop operational standards to underpin the Declaration of Intent to prevent the Maritime Transportation of counterfeit goods signed on 30 November 2016. The first wave of signatories included the three biggest vessel operators in the world and key freight forwarders as well as 10 multi-national rights holders and several trade associations.
Meena set up Valinor Consulting, a brand protection and IP consultancy, in 2019.