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When Ed Rastelli talks about his role as Head of BRR Operations and Chief of Staff for IHG Hotels & Resorts, one phrase comes to mind: “It’s about being a business accelerator, not just keeping the lights on.”
There are more than 6,000 hotels across 100 countries within IHG Hotels & Resorts’ remit, including iconic brands such as InterContinental, Holiday Inn, and Kimpton. Rastelli’s role sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, and people across the suite of brands, and his aim is to help the global hospitality stalwart transform its legal operations from service provider to strategic partner.
So, what does BRR Operations stand for? Business Reputation and Responsibility – which Rastelli describes as an amalgamation of legal, risk, compliance, insurance, audit, and company secretariat functions under one operational umbrella.
As all in-house counsel know, legal is often seen as an isolated department, sitting separate from the business. IHG’s integrated approach aligns functions that are naturally interdependent, thereby reducing silos, improving consistency, and ensuring business units across markets receive seamless support.
BRR Operations is a connected operating model designed for a global, multi-brand enterprise, ultimately increasing visibility and reducing risk by unifying data reporting and sharing learnings between legal and compliance.
Rastelli’s mission to transform the function from a back-office cost center that legal departments have too long embodied is one many can relate to. In the last decade, the perception and expectation of a legal department have evolved.
Technological acceleration is the leading force behind this revolution, dominating discussions about the future of the legal department. While people are often forgotten in this conversation, Rastelli believes the perfect recipe for a legal team that drives value is the integration of technology, process, data, and people. “It makes complete sense to have alignment across the operational piece and then also the people piece as well,” he says. Technology and human strategy moving in step.
Rastelli’s background as a legal operations professional is perhaps a reason for his people-focused mindset. Formerly in business management and banking as UK and Europe Head of Legal Operations for HSBC, and Global Legal Transformation Program manager for Standard Chartered, he brings a pragmatic lens to legal transformation.
Five pillars form the foundation of Rastelli’s approach to legal operations at IHG, providing support for the legal department to operate as part of a business ecosystem. The five-pillar concept is a model that demonstrates vision and actionable outcomes to business leaders. For legal leaders gunning for buy-in from a leadership team for investment in technology or human resources, it’s an invaluable tool. In Rastelli’s case, the five pillars represent:
Rastelli views these pillars as interwoven, reinforcing one another. For example, having sound financial acumen provides legal leaders with credibility in the boardroom, whilst people and technology power the delivery model. Knowledge management ensures consistent quality of delivery and clear communications keep stakeholders aligned – both internally and externally.
“Being able to communicate the vision for the function is fundamental, especially in times of change,” he says.
AI is now synonymous with the conversation of value-driving legal teams, and Rastelli sees it as a no-brainer to enhance the performance and capabilities of a legal team. “With AI, you’re able to extract a lot more information and data from a solution and find out things that in the past you had to traditionally spend lots of time searching for. AI is elevating the opportunity for technology solutions to really drive value.”
Yet Rastelli does have some sage words when it comes to AI software implementation – “choose wisely”. There is an overwhelming amount of legal-tech software options, and he recommends taking time to choose a company that can work in partnership with you is worthwhile. “You’ve got to choose your partnerships cleverly… which one will still be around in a year’s time?”
Rastelli’s focus is on sustainable innovation – building AI capabilities that endure and scale, not experiments that fade.
Every businessperson knows that data is the new gold. The data analytics market is on a path of exponential growth, predicted to grow from a value of USD$74.83 billion in 2024 to USD$94.36 billion in 2025 with a compound growth rate of 26.1 percent, according to The Business Research Company.
IHG has already tapped into the intrinsic value of data and is harnessing it for more than just reporting – using data to reshape how legal drives value. For example, by applying analytics to contract management, Rastelli’s team identified a delay between contract issues and execution that bottlenecked the team at an average of 30 days.
“By standardizing provisions and simplifying templates, we halved the contract time. That enables faster time to revenue and better business outcomes,” says Rastelli. When legal harnesses data and measures performance by business results rather than activity metrics, it becomes a revenue enabler.
Looking ahead, Rastelli is a firm believer that legal departments will be run like their own business, with financial management, people, processes, technology, and strategy being interwoven. “With the advent of AI, you’re going to need somebody who can keep their arms around all of this, be able to maintain and expand it. AI management will become a core part of the job.” Rastelli and the IHG team are demonstrating that success lies in the evolution of the in-house legal team, moving it from an operational support arm to one that drives performance.
