Mitsui Rail Capital’s general counsel: Insights on the value of diverse experiences

In this podcast, Rudy Figueroa, the senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Mitsui Rail Capital, discusses the importance of DE&I and shares his insights on moving from a law firm to in-house counsel. He also talks about how his experience in HR and risk has informed his leadership capabilities and reflects on why it’s so important for general counsels and chief legal officers to build a personal brand and network.

Some key questions answered in this podcast include:

• (2:00) You've held additional roles at Mitsui Rail Capital, including in HR and risk. How has that broader experience with the company helped you in your current role? 
• (3:05) What are your plans as general counsel and chief compliance officer to further DE&I at Mitsui, and also across the logistics transportation industry? 
• (6:26) Prior to Mitsui Rail Capital, you were an attorney at two law firms and also a judicial law clerk. What was the transition like into an in-house role? Which leadership capabilities were most helpful in making the transition? 
• (8:53) What is your perspective on why building a personal brand and network is so important for general counsels? And how have you built a rapport with your internal clients and created strategic partnerships as an internal trusted advisor? 
• (13:06) Looking ahead, what are the most important leadership skill sets and capabilities for your company to meet its strategic goals? 

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been edited for clarity.

Welcome to the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Diversity and inclusion, leading through tumultuous times, and building thriving teams and organizations are among the core issues we talk with leaders about every day, including in our podcasts. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Victoria Reese: Hi, I'm Victoria Reese, partner at Heidrick & Struggles, the global managing partner of the General Counsel Practice and the head of the Corporate Officer's Practice. In today's podcast, I'm talking to Rudy Figueroa, senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Mitsui Rail Capital, a railways rolling stock leasing company part of Mitsui and Co. Rudy is based in Chicago. Rudy, thank you for joining us today. 

Rudy Figueroa: Thank you. It's an honor and privilege to be here. And good morning!

Victoria Reese: We continue to see general counsels take greater responsibility for the enterprise and be strategic partners. Can you share your experience navigating this shift?

Rudy Figueroa: Thanks Victoria. Taking greater responsibility for the enterprise and being strategic partners is a many-faceted ability and skill. Over the years, I have seen that you need to build greater trust and communication with your team and really take time and have the courage to apply yourself in areas that you may initially have thought may not be in your wheelhouse. And you really need to grow into that responsibility and grow into that comfort zone and get your team comfortable so you can really be more responsible, more strategic, and really get better integrated into the enterprise. It takes some time; it takes some courage. Always be willing to listen and to learn, but don’t be afraid to speak up when needed.

Victoria Reese: Love the listen and learn part, always. You've held additional roles at Mitsui Rail Capital, including in HR and risk. How has that broader experience with the company helped you in your current role? 

Rudy Figueroa: You know, the last couple of years have really demonstrated how both HR and risk are really critical to the business. We've seen how the markets have reacted, how the pandemic has affected not only our workforce but our workplaces and our lives. And all this is an overlay onto the enterprise risk. There are always risks involved and good lawyers are going to see those risks and be able to identify them and potentially quantify them for the company. Now, we can't predict everything, but being very sensitive to where all the risks are and how far they go and where they come from, I think, really lends to a general counsel's ability to not only advise and guide the company but to take proactive measures. Particularly over the last few years, those responsibilities and those areas that need attention have just grown exponentially.

Victoria Reese: Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important to you, both personally and professionally. What are your plans as general counsel and chief compliance officer to further DE&I at Mitsui, and also across the logistics transportation industry? Are there any particular challenges or success stories related to being a company operating in several countries? 

Rudy Figueroa: Victoria, DE&I is always a great topic, particularly in these modern times. As general counsel and chief compliance officer, I've done my best to try to promote DE&I as a mission and strategic objective, and to expand that not only to Mitsui companies in the Americas but globally. And I've tried to do my best to expand it into other areas as well, in the industries that I work in—in transportation, logistics, finance, and energy, but even in some of the other areas that I also participate in including risk management and HR, compliance, the law, and at the vendors and the law firms we work with. 

Being at Mitsui has given me a very interesting perspective; DE&I has been often viewed as an American issue. Other countries are dealing with their own changing demographics across the spectrum and have sort of had to deal with that over time as well. But it’s really crystallized here in the United States. But working at a global international company has really provided me an opportunity to really see different cultures, different religions, and how all of these things interact within a company. It's given me the ability to really navigate different cultural norms and learn effective ways to communicate with different participants, different employees, different business partners. And this becomes really critical and becomes an adaptable skill set when dealing with your workforce, your C-suite, all the stakeholders that you're involved with in the United States. It's always a challenge. And when you look at the current pandemic years wherein DE&I has really come to the forefront with issues of systemic racism and different economic classes. We're looking at how consumers are reacting and affecting company bottom lines, how citizens are voting and affecting legislation, which then affects your company. So, [we are working to be] sensitive to that and going further to really understand how it's affecting the company externally and internally. 

DE&I is critically important in managing your organization's culture, driving effectiveness, driving innovation, and keeping your workforce intact and happy to be there versus wanting to leave. All of this, I think, permeates our companies nowadays and continues to drive many of the different responses that employees and decisionmakers make with regard to the business and with regards to their personal lives. And so, the more that we can speak about this, the more that we can have open and honest conversations and take progressive moves forward to be effective for our stakeholders is all for the better. 

Victoria Reese: Prior to Mitsui Rail Capital, you were an attorney at two law firms and also a judicial law clerk. What was the transition like into an in-house role? Which leadership capabilities were most helpful in making the transition? Any surprises or advice you would give to another lawyer considering such a shift in their career?

Rudy Figueroa: You know, transitioning into in-house and being effective—there are many different ways to view that. One interesting way I describe it is that it's like moving in with your client. You know, when you were outside counsel, you had what I'll call the luxury of not having to live with your client and you only had to deal with issues as they came to you. There's a problem, there's a transaction. When you move in with your client, it's kind of a good and bad thing. You're now there 10 decisions prior to that problem, or 10 decisions prior to that transaction, which can be great. But you also have to filter and deal with things that aren't necessarily or traditionally sort of legal questions, right? They're business questions. There are other questions that may not be pertinent at the time, but you're seeing them up close. You're seeing it up front. You're seeing it way in advance, and that's a different shift. Some lawyers are very keen on just providing their legal advice and not making a call. I think successful partners and successful in-house folks, we have to make decisions. We have to make a call, right? The more you can take ownership of the business and the enterprise and make decisions like you're an owner, and have that courage to take in all of the other risks, making that call and having the courage to do that—it goes a long way. It adds your credibility. It adds to the trust and the respect that your colleagues will have for you. And you directly impact those results, versus just getting a fee and you've either resolved a problem or you've closed the deal and, and you move on to the next one, right? So, you have to live with the consequences of that, good or bad. I live with the consequences and maybe there's a good outcome for that, for the company, for the department, for you individually. So that kind of transition has been helpful. And because, you know, it's like moving in with your girlfriend or boyfriend for the first time, right? It's different. It's just a different world all of a sudden. 

Victoria Reese: And you have to walk the halls with the people knowing that you gave the advice that they're all living with. 

Rudy Figueroa: Absolutely, absolutely right. You have to live with those consequences. 

Victoria Reese: Yeah. I recently interviewed Deborah Farone, a strategic marketing consultant for professional services, and we discussed how important it is for general counsels to build a personal brand and network. I know you do this really well. What is your perspective on why that's so important? Building on that, how have you built a rapport with your internal clients and created strategic partnerships as an internal trusted advisor? 

Rudy Figueroa: Personal branded network is critical for a modern general counsel or chief legal officer. You need that personal brand internally to gain trust—literally to get the right information that you need to be able to lean on people and get the most effective assistance from them. And for people to go to bat for you, your personal brand and your network’s going to be important.

How do you build that? It takes time, and it takes measured steps and a consistency that people can see, that people can understand, and that people can trust. And it has to be intentional. It takes going to people, taking the time out and not just delegating out. Look, you're never going to build your brand via email, right? You need to get out there. You need to see people; you need to earn their trust. And how you develop that skill set and that leadership skill set, whether it's internally or externally, can go a very long way. Those with a good personal brand will align with the right company, will align with the right workforce and C-suite and board, and also align with the network. If people like you and trust you, they will go to bat for you when you need it. At the end of the day, it's very easy for us to have very transactional relationships. In times of crisis or in times of need, if you've built a good brand and you have a good network, you will see that network respond for you in a very positive way, and maybe even surprise you with how supportive they can be. 

So, the network and brand isn’t going to build itself by itself. You need to really get out there, be intentional about it, and then you can absolutely see the benefits of that. That might actually go to both questions. I mean, whether it's internal clients or strategic partnerships with external parties, that personal brand and network goes a long way. I know many lawyers that have relied upon their own personal network, their personal goodwill, and I’ve seen that applied in negotiations and in business decisions. If you've got that goodwill and that rapport, if your personal brand is out there and you've got a deep and wide network, you'll be very surprised to see how much you can accomplish. I am routinely leaned upon, not only by my business and my C-suite but even within the broader Mitsui global companies. I'm constantly asked to reach out and chime in or perhaps to put in a good word or ask a favor here or there to get something that we might need. And you see that happen effectively thanks to the network, thanks to the reputation I've built and the person I am. And I think what's critical, another piece that we didn't quite talk about yet, is being authentic, being genuine, and being sincere. And having the reputation and consistency to show people that you really are who you are. And people can rely on that. Everyone’s going to have their own brand, and it’s really up to them what they want to present to the world and what is effective for them. But I think I've tried to rely on a brand that's been honest and genuine and forthright. And I think that that works very well for me. But to each their own. They need to develop that and they'll see the fruits of that.

Victoria Reese: I think you've talked about some skill sets that are really important for any leader in the C-suite. And, I think, for a general counsel, what you talked about is so important because being authentic means that you're approachable, and a general counsel that's not approachable can lead to many problems—as you can imagine—in a company, if people don't feel like they can come to you and confide in you and seek your advice.

Rudy, looking ahead and staying on this theme of leadership skill sets and capabilities, what's most important for your company to meet its strategic goals? Which of those skill sets and capabilities would you highlight?

Rudy Figueroa: That's a great question and one that has come to the forefront over the last few years and over the pandemic years, particularly. Leadership and capabilities to bring to the company have expanded for general counsels and chief legal officers. Not only do we need to have sound legal advice; not only do we need to have a good ability to manage and delegate risk and responsibility but we're being asked to be the moral compass for the company, right? We're asked to be independent eyes and ears when they are needed. We need to be adaptable to changing situations. All of this requires an ability to look at the world in a way of being very open and honest about the realities that you're seeing, being able to interpret what those realities could bring in terms of potential opportunities and potential risks, and then ask how to mitigate them. Then you need those abilities to find the information, find the knowledge [to answer that question], right? To think critically, think strategy about how to address these issues in a way that is as all-encompassing as possible, to minimize risks or to maximize rewards. You really need to bring a full suite of skills and abilities and knowledge to the table to be a good leader and to meet those strategic goals in an efficient and effective way.

Every general counsel and chief legal officer I know often has to bring so many different skill sets aside from the law. I've often found in order to develop those skill sets, you need to run to crisis. Crisis provides the biggest opportunity for growth for a leader. You may not know exactly what to do, but you have to trust yourself, rely on good judgment, rely on good information, and you have to know what you don't know. You have to be smart enough to know if you need more information or if there's somebody smarter than you in an area. Get their advice, right? Solicit their viewpoints. [This enables us to] be effective decisionmakers and leaders, knowing how to delegate those actions out and manage not only an issue but manage the process, the decision making, and the results. So, the pandemic years, I think, are providing general counsels a huge amount of growth opportunities in terms of leadership. I myself have encountered so many changing scenarios that have required me to step in as a leader, to take responsibility for things. But you know, that might also just be me. I tend to run to crisis and want to help out. 

Victoria Reese: I think you run to other things as well. I think how you do your job and your commitment to DE&I, and mentoring people outside of the company, coming up with the aspiration to be general counsel, is incredible. 

Rudy, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Such a pleasure. 

Rudy Figueroa: Thank you so much, Victoria. It was an absolute pleasure to be here and hope we can do it again. 

Thanks for listening to the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. To make sure you don’t miss more future-shaping ideas and conversations, please subscribe to our channel on the podcast app. And if you’re listening via LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube, why not share this with your connections? Until next time.

About the interviewer

Victoria Reese (vreese@heidrick.com) is the global managing partner of the Legal, Risk, Compliance & Government Affairs and Corporate Officers practices and head of the General Counsel Practice; she is based in Heidrick & Struggles' New York office.