WA: Meet the GCs

May Lin Chew joined Shell in 2003 and has worked in Shell's offices in Singapore, London and The Hague across the Chemicals, Downstream, LNG, Aviation, Marine and Global Commercial businesses. Prior to her current sabbatical leave, she was the Head of Legal and Associate General Counsel for Shell based in Singapore where she led a cross-cultural global legal team supporting Shell’s multi-billion global LNG trading business in all aspects of its strategy, LNG to power projects, marketing, trading, operations and business development. Concurrently, she was also an executive member of the global Shell Energy Leadership Team with oversight for Gas & Power trading projects in Asia and Australia. In 2013, May Lin was the first lawyer outside of Shell’s headquarters to be appointed Secretary to the Executive Committee of Royal Dutch Shell in the CEO’s Office in The Hague where she acted as special adviser to the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, managed the transitions of both the incoming CEO and Chairman, and supported the CEO in his Executive Committee responsibilities.

Before going in-house, May Lin worked at Minter Ellison (Perth) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Tokyo) in Corporate & Commercial, M&A and Joint Ventures. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University respectively and was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in 1997.

May Lin currently also sits on the Board of Perth Symphony Orchestra as a Non-Executive Director. 
 

Peter Huston joined Fortescue in 2005 and has over 20 years’ experience in legal and corporate advisory roles. Prior to joining Fortescue, Mr Huston spent 12 years as a Partner of the law firm now known as Norton Rose Fulbright. He then spent over a decade in Activist Private Equity as an Executive Director at Troika Securities Limited. 

Mr Huston is admitted as a Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, and the High Court of Australia and has a Bachelor of Jurisprudence, Bachelor of Laws (with Honours), Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Laws.

Maya vanden Driesen was appointed Group General Counsel of Wesfarmers Limited in January 2015. She joined Wesfarmers in 1993 in the position of Legal Counsel - Litigation, and was appointed to the Senior Legal Counsel role for the Corporate Solicitors Office (Perth) in 2009. In 2010 Maya was appointed General Manager Legal - Litigation overseeing the management and conduct of all litigation and dispute matters across the Wesfarmers Group. Prior to joining Wesfarmers, Maya practised law at Parker & Parker and Downings Legal in areas including general commercial, industrial, regulatory and insurance litigation.

Maya holds Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws degrees from The University of Western Australia and was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in 1990. Maya is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and she sits on the Executive Committee of the GC 100, representing the General Counsel of Australia's top 100 ASX listed companies within the Association of Corporate Counsel (Australia).

She is also a member of the UWA Law School’s Advisory Board and has been a Director for the Committee for Perth since January 2016.