Serbian lawyer Mirko Lalatovic has become the new Head of Compliance, Central and Northern Europe, at Fresenius Medical Care -- a German company specializing in the production of medical supplies, primarily to facilitate or aid renal dialysis.
Fresenius Medical Care operates more than 40 production sites on all continents, with its largest plants in terms of production output in the United States, Germany, and Japan.
Lalatovic, who is based in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, first joined Fresenius as the West Balkan Compliance Office in October 2015. Before that he spent almost seven years with Kinstellar and a little over two years with DLA Piper. He graduated from the University of Belgrade in 2006 and obtained a Masters of Law in 2008 from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris.
According to Lalatovic, Fresenius "has more than 120,000 employees, operating in more than 150 countries, with an annual turnover of EUR 18 billion and more than 3,400 clinics worldwide. It is listed on most significant stock exchanges on the world, including the New York Stock Exchange. As such, this company falls under the watchful eye of numerous regulators, both local and those with worldwide authority and powers. Building a compliance program in such a company and working in the compliance department is a big professional challenge. In my previous role, I was responsible for five ex-Yugoslavia countries (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Macedonia) which is a quite turbulent region from the compliance point of view. The CENE region is much bigger (it consists of 15 European countries, including big countries such as Germany and Poland) where business is much more complex and sophisticated than in Balkan countries. The medical devices sector is very dynamic and the challenges are high and interesting.
Also, contrary to my previous life, where I worked as a corporate lawyer with major international law firms like DLA Piper and Kinstellar, working in such a big company like Fresenius Medical Care allows me to learn more about business itself (I would even say three different businesses, since within Fresenius Medical Care, I am advising on production, sales, and providing business). Each of these businesses has its own compliance risks and in order to mitigate these risks, a compliance person must understand and learn about the business and its procedures. Compliance must be a business partner: to support, assist and correct, when necessary."
