Cheryl Yuan
DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL – M&A AND PARTNERSHIPS
VEON
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
7:00 am
Wake up and, together with my husband, get our six-year-old daughter dressed, fed, and ready for school. At the same time, we're keeping an eye on our one-year-old daughter, who wanders around our home causing mischief.
8:15 am
My husband takes our older daughter to school after I give her a kiss goodbye. After feeding the younger one, I take her to the daycare, thankfully only one block away. Finish getting myself ready (including checking for food stains). Today is a non-travel day, so I walk the five minutes to work. I'm lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) to live extremely close to the office (no time for long commutes)!
9:00 am
Run straight into a meeting with our finance team to discuss various potential transactions, including legal, contractual, and regulatory considerations and the political situation in the various emerging market countries. All of these elements will factor into the deal terms, strategic decisions, and likelihood of obtaining approvals.
10:00 am
Meeting with our group general counsel to discuss top priorities facing our global telecommunications and digital business and how to tackle each issue.
11:00 am
Grab some coffee before sitting down to properly review emails, draft transaction documents, memos, deal announcements, and board presentations.
12:00 pm
Have a few short meetings with my team to discuss various transactions that they are working on, then make a few phone calls to senior management or partners at law firms to discuss key issues.
1:00 pm
Walk to nearby food stall to get some Thai curry for lunch — one of my favorites in the city! Depending on the weather, I walk or bike around to get some fresh air, and check the daycare app on my phone to see what my toddler is up to this afternoon.
2:00 pm
Join a video conference with bankers, the CEO of a potential target company, and management of local operating subsidiary to negotiate terms in relation to a potential transaction.
3:00 pm
Grab coffee with the global head of M&A to catch up on various potential transactions and their status, next steps, and internal approvals. We also map out related agenda items on the next few board and committee meetings.
4:00 pm
Meeting with my full team to discuss various matters including changes in the business, upcoming board meetings, law firm budgets, and coordination with the other company functions.
5:00 pm
Call with compliance officer to discuss due diligence findings on potential transactions and the best way to proceed. Discuss upcoming travel plans with my assistant — trips to Cairo, DC, Moscow, and London.
6:00 pm
Follow-up meeting with group general counsel to round out the day and align on top priorities for the rest of the week.
7:00 pm
Target time to be home for dinner with the family. Try feeding the toddler some new food (shrimp and edamame are the most recent attempts), and ask my older daughter about school (she loves to talk … perhaps taking after her mom). We try to speak Chinese at the dinner table so that the kids don't forget it.
8:00 pm
Playtime, bath-time, and story-time for the kids; get them ready for bed.
9:00 pm
Both kids are now both asleep — if we're lucky! Reply to a few more emails and comment on a few documents; send some WeChat messages to my mom who lives in Taiwan. With the time difference, we often leave messages for each other instead of talking live.
10:00 pm
The bell rings — my husband's trading day is over (New York market on Amsterdam time), and we finally have a chance to catch up with each other.
10:30 pm
Try to watch some TV/Netflix. We're currently into Magic for Humans and Mindhunter for a real wind-down of my brain, although I may tune into CNN if I have enough energy for US politics. But on most nights, I start to nod off before I even finish an episode.
11:30 pm
Officially in bed and hoping the kids don't wake up too early. Finally time for shut-eye!
