Barbara Levi

Rio TintoChief Legal Officer & External Affairs

Barbara is Chief Legal Office & External Affairs for Rio Tinto, based in London. Alongside leading Rio Tinto’s legal teams around the world, Barbara oversees a range of governance functions including Company Secretariat, Ethics & Compliance, External Affairs and the Technical Evaluation Group. Barbara has extensive experience across corporate, commercial and compliance matters. Over the last 20 years, she has held a number of senior legal roles across Europe and in the US, in-house and in private practice.

Before joining Rio Tinto, Barbara worked for 15 years at Novartis in different senior roles such as Group Legal Head M&A and Strategic Transactions, General Counsel of Sandoz, the generic arm of Novartis, Global Legal Head Product Strategy & Commercialization, General Counsel for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Global Legal Head for Technical Operations for the Pharma division of Novartis. In addition, Barbara led cross-divisional practice teams, building capabilities and establishing standards and processes for compliance with trade sanctions and anti-bribery. Before joining Novartis, Barbara has worked as a litigator in law firms in Milan (Italy) and as a corporate and transactional attorney in law firms in New York City (US) for several years. She is an attorney-at-law, admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York Bar, and the Italian Bar.

Known for her strong legal judgment, her business acumen and high energy, Barbara is a renowned leader in the industry and a frequent speaker on legal & compliance topics. Barbara is passionate about leadership and gender equality and, as a mother of four children, has a wide interest in societal and community topics – she served as a board member of the International School in Basel in 2015 and 2016. Since January 2020, Barbara is a member of the Employers’ Board of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (King’s College) whose aim is fair and equal access to leadership for women of all backgrounds.