Throughout her career, Jessica Pacifico has always chosen the hardest path: learning Latin at high school, achieving a master’s degree in chemical engineering, then switching to IP law and studying, initially, in Dutch, a language that she did not, at that time, speak. With a life course like that, some failures are inevitable. But Jessica views failure not as the end of the story, but as an opportunity to learn.

Jessica builds on her own life experience in her people management. In her day-to-day working life, she encourages colleagues to identify their own solutions to business challenges. She has learned to recognise that each member of the team has their own working style and personality, and to shape the working environment to their strengths, rather than trying to bend them to fit the working environment.

In this conversation, Jessica shares how she has developed her approach to team management, with a focus on each individual’s potential. She explains how important it is to consider this potential not just in the day-to-day, but during recruitment. Here, she says, it is not enough just to consider how a candidate might fill the current role, but how she can help them shape their career progression, and what their next role might be.

Host

Jon Baston-Pitt

Guest

Jessica Pacifico, Global Head of Intellectual Property, Fugro