Regardt Botes

Profile

Regardt Botes is lead IP legal counsel for Diageo’s Breakthrough Innovation team and since 2024 has been acting as interim lead global digital counsel, steering on generative artificial intelligence (AI) matters. 

Alongside this role, Botes is part of Diageo’s AI Board and AI Marketing and Innovation Council. For five years Botes was part of the founding team of the SUPR Bars, a vegan health snack business.

Comments

“Regardt Botes is an exceptional in-house IP leader and one of the most effective and collaborative legal professionals I have worked with. He combines deep technical excellence with commercial pragmatism and a rare ability to build high-trust partnerships with external advisers and his internal clients in complex and fast-moving environments.

“Regardt has delivered major AI-enabled innovation projects across brands and markets including early AI-generated personalised packaging initiatives such as the Johnnie Walker x Scott Naismith collaboration, which was delivered when generative AI was still emerging and governance frameworks were far less mature. He has also supported consumer-facing AI experiences such as the Seedlip AI concierge—one of the earliest AI-enabled consumer chatbot deployments. In parallel he has been instrumental in enabling internal AI adoption at scale and helping to unlock initiatives while resolving complex issues around global agency use of AI tools such as Pencil.

“Regardt has overseen legal and IP risk assessments for 100+ AI use cases across Diageo—demonstrating both scale and rigour in governance. He has also played a leading role in building AI capability across the business and legal teams globally and developing practical guidance and training to support responsible adoption. This includes a first-of-its-kind AI IP mini-series focused specifically on protecting IP in AI-generated outputs. He consistently provides clear, well-scoped instructions—setting out commercial objectives, deadlines and risk posture clearly.

“Regardt contributes actively to the wider profession through industry engagement and thought leadership. He has shared practical insights on AI governance and IP protection through external presentations. Regardt is not only an elite lawyer but a genuinely impressive and grounded person to work with. His clients and advisers value his subject matter expertise, passion for the topic and generosity with his time—he builds real trust and people genuinely enjoy working with him. That combination of technical excellence, commercial judgement and human leadership is rare and exactly what this award should recognise.”