Features

Isabelle Melody – Orolia

GC beams in on compliance for defense contractor

Isabelle Melody – Orolia

It’s all about the resilience, says Isabelle Melody.

In a world where phishing no longer involves poles or nets and jamming has nothing to do with breakfast, what’s needed is resilience to combat modern threats ranging from GPS jamming and spoofing to more sophisticated cyberattacks meant to cripple critical infrastructure.

That’s what Orolia’s products—such as resilient positioning, navigation and timing systems—are designed and built for, though as general counsel, Melody is less focused on the science and more focused on the company’s legal needs and operations.

Resilient PNT solutions take GPS and clocks to a new level by providing exact location and time using satellites, time servers, atomic clocks and oscillators to ensure extremely accurate and reliable information “in any environment,” she explains. Resilience is the backbone of continuity for Orolia’s customers, supporting stock exchanges, autonomous vehicle manufacturers, space exploration and much more.

Beyond resilience to threats in search and rescue, it translates to faster response times so distressed boaters can be rescued from freezing waters, deployed soldiers can be rapidly located for evacuation, and responders will more easily find a downed aircraft.

“In nontechnical terms, we sell solutions that allow our customers to know exactly where they are or what time it is, no matter their environment,” Melody says.

Getting the signal

Now headquartered in Rochester, New York, and spun from the French company Temex’s timing and synchronization activities, Orolia was founded in 2005 and has grown at the rate of about one acquisition a year. Recent acquisitions include Talen-X Inc. and Skydel Solutions in 2019, both used to test satellite-connected navigation devices against signal loss, spoofing or jamming.

In 2016, the French private equity and venture capital firm Eurazeo acquired a majority share of Orolia, looking to move into defense contracting in the U.S.

Isabelle Melody – Orolia

To do so, it needed to have an in-house counsel and a solid compliance program. Melody embraced the new challenge and joined Orolia in October 2016.

“They kind of said ‘There is everything to do, here’s the playground, go have fun,’” she recalls. “However, none of this would be possible if Orolia did not have a leader who exudes compliance. I know given the choice, he will always make the right decision and this knowledge is what allows me to successfully run the compliance program of the company.”

Integrating the many pieces that formed Orolia into a single company under new ownership, while creating a compliance program to meet U.S. and European standards, was overwhelming at times, she says.

In creating Orolia’s ethics and compliance program, Melody needed to define her role as in-house counsel. So she created a matrix listing her duties, such as litigation and corporate matters in one column. A second column referenced what could be handled by her legal team—such as General Data Protection Regulation or contract review—or by other departments (patent filing or IT).

The matrix clarified what her primary role and responsibilities should be, but between litigation, contracts, compliance, M&A, intellectual property and insurance issues, there’s no shortage of tasks.

Built-in compliance

In January 2021, she expects to roll out the integration of export control standards and rules in Orolia’s SAP enterprise resource planning and Salesforce customer relationship management programs.

It’s a collaboration between her and the head of trade compliance and will mean the proper documentation and approvals will be automatically generated for all sales.

Isabelle Melody – Orolia

In addition to building export control regulations, Melody and her team are also rolling out a new ethics and compliance platform through Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook which will prompt salespeople to answer detailed questions as the sales process begins, so proper controls can be applied to the ensuing relationship.

As her team has grown from two to five contract managers, a trade compliance officer and an executive assistant, Melody says she’s been able to delegate more work.

“Amongst the team, someone’s always ready to take on a new project such as GDPR, managing the legal intranet or the choice of a contract management tool,” she says. “That’s true teamwork.”

Little gets outsourced, she adds.

“As a generalist, I will narrow down the issue as much as possible and consult the specialist on the particular aspect of the law. It’s similar to the role of a general practitioner who will triage the patients before referring them to a specialist,” Melody says.

Coming into the country

Leading the legal team of a U.S. tech company is not something Melody envisioned as a girl. Born in France, she did not speak English until she was 18. While studying for her law degree, an undergraduate course of study in France, she was offered a chance to become a student at the University of West Virginia for a year.

While touted as an exchange program, when she and a fellow student arrived in Morgantown, it seemed nobody knew they were coming. But she got to stay, and the credits she earned at UVW came in very handy a decade later when she took and passed the bar exam in New York.

Isabelle Melody – Orolia

Melody earned a Master of Law from Université Pierre Mendès-France in Grenoble in 1997 and a DESS, International Business Law from Université Jean Moulin in Lyon in 2000.

In 2001, she joined Alstom Transport, a French manufacturer of railroad equipment and services. As her career progressed from counsel to legal and contracts specialist to senior attorney, Melody was also moving from Paris to U.S. outposts including Hornell, New York, and Naperville, Illinois. Within two years after passing the bar exam, she was off to Singapore in 2009 as Alstom’s vice president of legal and contract management for Asia Pacific.

Melody returned to the U.S. in 2012 and in 2013 left Alstom and eventually joined Xerox as legal counsel supporting its large enterprise organization.

Her desire to stretch her abilities remained strong, though, making Orolia a great fit as it moved into the defense contracting space in an always changing and innovative environment, she says.

“I enjoy true legal work, such as drafting a contract or reviewing a complex indemnification clause. But it is less than 10 percent of what I do,” Melody says. “I am happy at Orolia because I am also able to create and build upon a vision for how to better support the company and maximize efficiencies.”

Published on: November 10, 2020

regions:

categories:

Showcase your feature on your website with a custom “As Featured in Vanguard” badge that links directly to your article!

Copy and paste this script into your page coding (ideally right before the closing tag) where you want to display our review banner.

Testimonials

It was a great honor to be featured in Vanguard Law. Working with every member of the team, from the initial interview with Erin Clark, through production with Victor Martins, writing the article with Taryn Plumb and creating the final content with Dave Gushee, was a true pleasure. Everyone was very professional, enthusiastic and supportive, and their creative approach and positive attitude clearly came through in the final product.
– Kevin C. Rakowski, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance with Radian Group Inc.
The piece highlighting my company, Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., came out fabulous. Our company is in the new and used car sales and service industry. Everyone was great to work with and extremely professional. They produced a high-quality product and have provided expert assistance and guidance post-production of the article.
– Wade Poulson, General Counsel, Bob Baker Enterprises Inc.
I was honored to be the subject of an article. I enjoy reading Vanguard articles and seeing how other attorneys got to their positions and see their jobs. It's also interesting to see how different law firms partner with the subjects of the articles.
– Henry Marquard, in-house counsel, Stanley Consultants Inc.
As promised in advance, my feature in Vanguard has increased my visibility within the profession and prompted more than a few people I have not communicated with recently to reconnect. One of the Italian law firms I have used in the past is now in the process of interviewing me for an article on their website and tweeting out the feature story. Activity and the number of people connecting with me on LinkedIn has soared, which is great. The Vanguard writers and editorial staff were great to work with—highly professional and made the effort to make the experience both fun and rewarding (they were also respectful of the time pressures and demands all lawyers face). I was very pleased with the experience and the final outcome. Needless to say, I have been very pleased. All in all working with Vanguard has been a very positive experience which generated good publicity for both Shawcor and myself. My sincere thanks.
– Tim Hutzul, General Counsel, ShawCor Ltd.

LATEST EDITION

Fall II 2023

READ NOW

GET VANGUARD IN YOUR INBOX.

  • * We’ll never share your email or info with anyone.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.