EMEA and APAC legal director | Bird
Agnieszka Kominkiewicz-Hibbert has served as the Netherlands EMEA legal director for California-based scooter share company Bird since July 2018, where she has built the EMEA legal team which currently is...
General counsel company lawyer | Napoleon Games
Passionate about media and innovation, Alexandra Olbrechts has held various roles within many different fields within the media sector, dealing with a wide range of negotiations and contracts in constantly...
General counsel Belgium | bpost
Considered an expert in identifying strategic business opportunities, Alexis Vandeginste is highly knowledgeable in dealing with complex enterprises, acquisitions, divesture and major transactions. After having worked for eight years as...
Real estate legal counsel and development manager | Decathlon
French sporting goods retailer Decathlon has over 1,500 stores in 49 countries and is one of the largest sporting goods retailer in the world. As of July 2017, Alix Aspeslagh...
Head of legal affairs and corporate governance | Inter IKEA Systems
Anna Hägg has extensive experience serving as an in-house counsel in high-profile international commercial environments. She has sat on several boards and has previous experience of being part of management...
General counsel | Fugro
Before joining Fugro, the leading provider of geo-intelligence and asset integrity solutions for construction, infrastructure and natural resources, Annabelle Vos was a corporate litigation lawyer and M&A lawyer in private...
Head of legal business development M&A and regulation | ENGIE
As the head of legal business development M&A and regulation, Anne-Bérangère Sudraud reports to the director of legal, strategy, regulation and public affairs of Engie Benelux. She possesses strong leadership...
Head of legal and compliance | KPMG
Antonio BenÃtez-Donoso Tarascón started his career as a lawyer in 2004 at one of Spain’s largest law firms, Uria Menendez. After six months in the corporate department, he switched to...
Compliance and legal officer | Crédit Agricole CIB
Crédit Agricole CIB is headquartered in Belgium and provides Benelux based companies with financing, capital markets and investment banking operations. A key part of the company’s legal division and support...
General counsel and company secretary | GrandVision
Axel Viaene started his career as an international associate attorney with The Coca-Cola Company at the company’s global headquarters in Atlanta in 1997. He moved to Amsterdam to take up...
General counsel member of the executive committee | Renewi
European waste management company Renewi was created in 2017 following the merger of Shanks Group with Van Gansewinkel Groep. It has big plans to be part of the solution to...
Chief legal officer | PM-International
Right from the start of her career, PM-International’s chief legal officer Beatrice Nelson-Beer made the conscious decision to give her work an international approach. Something which Nelson-Beer admits ‘put her...
Corporate director legal affairs and company secretary | Royal HaskoningDHV
Bernard van der Voort joined Royal Haskoning in 1997 during a time of significant growth, starting with 1,400 staff in 1997 to 3,500 in 2012. In that year Royal Haskoning...
Deputy general counsel and compliance director - specialised nutrition | Danone Specialised Nutrition
With 18 years of in-house experience in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, Bruno Favre, has vast experience of leading in multicultural environments in the food and beverages sector. Favre...
European legal counsel | Panattoni
Catherine Delsemme has served as the European legal counsel for real estate developer, Panattoni Europe the last 11 years. She previously practiced as a lawyer for Wildgen, Partners in Law...
Legal director and managing director | Braskem
Cristiane Rego is responsible for the legal area at Braskem Netherlands as well as that of Braskem Europe. Initially joining the Brazilian arm of Braskem in 2013, Rego joined in...
General counsel and director of services | Heerema Marine Contractors
David Blackmon is an individual with extensive experience in managing large legal teams across multiple locations. Over the years he has accumulated experience in international commercial negotiations, contracts and dispute...
Legal director | Royal Dutch Shell
Donny Ching was appointed legal director of Royal Dutch Shell in 2014 and is responsible for legal services, intellectual property services and compliance matters. Ching graduated with a law degree...
Executive director head of legal international | Elanco
Dr Beatrice Vos currently serves as executive director, head of legal international for Elanco Animal Health, a company spun off from Lilly that went public on the New York Stock...
Company secretary and general counsel | DAF Trucks
Respected lawyer Duco Zoomer has served as the company secretary and general counsel for Dutch truck manufacturing company DAF Trucks for 20 years. In this role he is responsible for...
General counsel and company secretary | Play Communications
In January 2018, Elona Ganaj was appointed group general counsel and company secretary of Play Communications, a Luxembourgish entity regulated by Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financière and listed in...
Head of legal | BNP Paribas Fortis
Els Ponnet joined BNP Paribas Fortis in March 2000 as head of legal global markets, and over the years has assumed the position of head legal private equity, corporate finance...
Senior vice president legal Belux, Central and Southern Europe | Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize
Deemed as ‘clearly one of the top names in our general counsel community’, by a nominator, Els Steen has built a notable career at large Dutch international retailer Ahold Delhaize,...
General counsel | Endemol Shine Group
Emma Moloney boasts an impressive legal career having taken on various legal leadership roles with the likes of Sky, Amazon (Kindle) and News UK. Moloney completed her law degree in...
Legal director | Cosmetics Europe
Cosmetics Europe is deeply involved in various scientific research projects which require significant negotiation of contractual frameworks from the legal department. When Emma Trogen joined Cosmetics Europe in 2013, the...
Executive director global legal affairs | Heineken
Ernst van de Weert joined Dutch brewing company Heineken in October 2008, in the capacity of regional counsel for Asia Pacific. In April 2013 he assumed the role of company...
Senior vice president and general counsel | Rezidor Hotel Group
Eva Erauw is an experienced lawyer in the hospitality sector, with vast understanding of both international law firms and in-house legal departments. Having worked for the likes of Starwood Hotels...
Global legal director | Anheuser-Busch InBev
Fabio Riva assumed his current position as global legal director for multinational drinks and brewing holding company AB InBev in March 2017. Prior to this position, he worked for seven...
Vice president associate general counsel EMEA | BCD Travel
An in-house counsel with over 25 years of experience in a diverse range of areas, Flavia Kaczelnik has served in a number of senior legal leadership roles. These include taking...
General counsel | Chemviron
Geneviève Bérubé is a business lawyer with 23 years of experience within large national law firms and multinational corporations. As a Canadian and Belgian lawyer, Bérubé has lived and worked...
Executive vice president legal, security, EHS, audit, P&T | Umicore
Géraldine Nolens was appointed chief counsel for the group in 2009 and joined the executive committee in 2015. She had a stint in private practice at international law firm Cleary...
Vice-president and associate general counsel CEEI, Russia and MEMA | Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Together with a team of 25, Gregory Leboutte is responsible for providing legal support to the Hewlett Packard CEEMA vice president and his staff, covering Central Eastern Europe, the Middle...
General secretary | LuxairGroup
Gwenn Vanweddingen first joined LuxairGroup as legal counsel in 2010 but left in 2013 to join deSter, a subsidiary of gategroup, in Belgium. Vanweddingen re-joined LuxairGroup in 2016 as assistant...
General counsel and company secretary | ABN AMRO
Hanneke Dorsman joined Dutch ban ABN AMRO initially as legal counsel in 1984, a role that she held for 17 years. In 2002 she assumed the additional role of head...
Head of legal France and Benelux | Société des Pétroles Shell
Hans Sevenants possesses strong experience in a multi-jurisdictional and multicultural environment. As the head of France and Benelux for Société des Pétroles Shell, Sevenants supports the legal division with eight...
Legal director - Northern and Eastern Europe | Uber
Helen Hayes joined Uber in the UK in March 2016 as a litigation and regulatory counsel, after spending 12 years at DLA Piper. Hayes became the legal director for Uber...
Director group legal, general counsel | Proximus
Igor Makedonsky has served as a lawyer active in the telecommunications sector since 1990. After an initial experience as a legal counsel and European law specialist in the legal department...
Group general counsel | LBC Tank Terminals Group
LBC Tank Terminals Group, headquartered in Belgium, is an independent operator of midstream and downstream bulk liquid storage facilities for chemicals, oils and refined petroleum products. It owns and operate...
Head of legal department | Colruyt
Ingrid Baeke has been with Belgian family owned retail corporation Colruyt Group for the last 28 years, in various legal positions. Baeke joined Colruyt in 1991, mainly supporting the Dolmen...
General counsel, continental Europe and Great Britain | McCain
Ingrid Baeten started her career as legal counsel for international group Puratos in 1985, a company dedicated to bakers, pastry chefs and chocolatiers. She left Puratos in 1992 to join...
General counsel and member of the executive committee | AkzoNobel
Isabelle Deschamps joined Dutch multinationalAkzoNobel in August 2018 as group general counsel, overseeing all legal, compliance and intellectual property matters. Prior to joining AkzoNobel, Deschamps worked at Unilever where she...
General counsel and company secretary | Kiadis Pharma
James Joy has over 20 years of experience as an international corporate lawyer advising multinational businesses in a variety of industries. Joy joined biopharmaceutical company Kiadis Pharma in July 2018,...
General counsel | Greenpeace International
Serving as Greenpeace International’s chief legal officer and the head of the legal unit for the last 15 years, Jasper Teulings is responsible for advising on all legal aspects of...
Head legal department | ING Belgium
Longstanding ING lawyer Jean Cattaruzza initially joined ING Belgium in 1986 as a corporate lawyer. In 2002 he was promoted to co-head legal department. From January 2007 to December 2008...
Associate general counsel and director of corporate, external and legal affairs Europe | Microsoft
Longstanding Microsoft lawyer Jeff Bullwinkel is not only an outstanding in-house counsel, but also an avid contributor to public policy debates shaping the future of technology with his strong experience...
General counsel EMEA | Hoya Corporation
Jeremy C.R. Entwisle started his legal career working at a white-shoe New York firm in their Tokyo, Hong Kong and London offices. He was then recruited to join JPMorgan’s in-house...
General counsel | Ageas
Johan De Bruycker has served as group general counsel for multinational insurance company Ageas since October 2016. He comes from a financial services background, having worked as a banking and...
Chief legal officer | SES
SES Satellites has established itself as a world-leading satellite operator and the first to deliver a differentiated and scalable GEO-MEO to clients worldwide, with over 50 satellites in Geostationary Earth...
Senior vice president, general counsel Europe | Prologis
Jonathan Gimblett is a UK qualified lawyer and joined Prologis in 2005 from Linklaters, where he specialised in international real estate transactions working in the UK, Russia and Central and...
General counsel and head of group governance | TMF Group
Joyce Winnubst joined professional services firm TMF Group 12 years ago and over the years has assumed additional responsibility to a core legal role. She has become a key part...
General counsel - global functions, emerging markets and global legal solutions | adidas
Katherine Roseveare started her journey with adidas in 2005 as a European counsel for Reebok, purchased by the adidas Group that year. In 2007 she was promoted to general counsel...
General counsel | OSY Technologies
Kevin Wilson has served as the general counsel of OSY Technologies in Luxembourg for the last three years. Prior to this role he was chief counsel for British multinational defence,...
Vice president international general counsel, chief compliance officer | Bloomin' Brands
Internationally trained lawyer Kirk Crowder has demonstrated legal experience as a senior legal advisor in multiple industries. Crowder has first-hand experience in leading and managing diverse international organisations globally, including...
Legal director | SAP Belgium
Kristof Callebaut is an experienced legal director with demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry for large multinational companies. Callebaut has a strong expertise in the areas of...
Vice president senior counsel | Marriott Hotel
Since May 2017 and the merger between Marriott and Starwood, Lara Y. Barrett has served as the lead counsel responsible for Marriott’s new development and renewals of legacy hotels transactions...
General counsel | Royal FloraHolland
Leendert Eijgenraam joined Dutch conglomerate of florists, Royal FloraHolland, as manager of the legal department in 1990. In 2010 he was promoted to general counsel, a role he’s held for...
Group general counsel and chief compliance officer | CQLT SaarGummi Technologies
Leticia G. Lizardo started her career as a public defender in criminal cases in Honduras, continuing as a human rights lawyer in Washington DC, then as a trade lawyer in...
Head legal affairs International BU. head group data protection team | Akka Technologies
Loreto Reguera is a highly respected business legal advisor and a trusted IP policy expert with extensive experience in intellectual property policy and licensing, compliance, data protection, commercial negotiations and...
Head of legal | AXA Bank
Maarten Cleppe has served as the head of legal of AXA Bank since January 2016. Prior to joining AXA Bank he served as a senior legal counsel at ING Bank...
Head of legal | Jan De Nul Group
Magali Declercq joined family-owned company Jan De Nul Group in 2005 as legal counsel, where she was responsible for supporting the legal activities of the company in the areas of...
General counsel | PwC Luxembourg
Serving as the general counsel at PwC Luxembourg for over 11 years, Marc Vandemeulebroeke is responsible for general legal support for relationships with suppliers and clients, especially in the financial...
Vice president and corporate affairs Europe (general counsel Europe) | Anheuser-Busch InBev
Maria Rocha Barros is qualified to practice in the US (New York), UK and Brazil with significant work experience in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. ‘It is my...
General counsel Benelux and public affairs director | L'Oréal
Marius van Haaren is an expert in the field of marketing and advertising law, intellectual property, contracts, drafting, reviewing and negotiating of distribution, licensing, marketing services, IT, turn-key machinery, procurement...
General counsel Europe | Mexichem
Mark Collins has been the general counsel for Mexichem Netherlands since October 2017. Collins possesses a broad range of skills in the area of data privacy, contract management, negotiation and...
Executive vice president and chief legal officer | Philips
Marnix van Ginneken joined Philips’ legal department in 2007 and became head of group legal in 2010. He is responsible for the various group legal departments including corporate and financial...
Head legal affairs | Van Oers United
Van Oers United is an internationally operating supplier and producer of fresh vegetables, with the business goals of strengthening its development with its chain partners and reinforcing availability, quality and...
Head of legal | AG Insurance
AG Insurance is a Belgian insurance company providing life insurance and non-life insurance as well as supplementary pensions. Martine Meulemans journey with AG Insurance started 35 years ago when she...
Legal director global privacy, privacy and compliance | PVH Corp - PVH Europe (Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein)
After a few years as a legal associate at Canon Europa, Mathilde Fabre decided it was time to broaden her horizons and took on the role of in-house legal counsel...
Associate general counsel, EMEA | Uber
Matthew Wilson joined Uber in 2015, initially in London with responsibility for Northern Europe and now leads the legal team in EMEA, having done so since May 2017. Wilson has...
Associate general counsel - upstream | Shell International
Michael Coates started his current role in April 2017, relocating to Shell’s global headquarters in the Netherlands from London, where he served as Shell’s UK head of legal and associate...
Associate general counsel digital media/Kindle/devices EU | Amazon Europe Core
Michael Koenig joined Amazon Luxembourg in September 2012, in the role of associate general counsel digital media Europe, and over the years has assumed additional responsibilities within several areas of...
General counsel, head of group legal and compliance | Eurofins Scientific Group
Michael Riha started his position as general counsel, head of group legal and compliance at Eurofins Scientific Group two years ago, where he is responsible for providing round the clock...
Associate general counsel | Teekay Shipping
Teekay Shipping is considered one of the major project developers in the marine energy space sector and since being founded in 1971 has developed from a regional shipping company into...
General counsel and managing director | Robeco Institutional Asset Management
Michiel Prinsze joined Dutch asset management firm, Robeco Alternative Investments in 1998. Since joning as a corporate legal counsel over the years he has assumed a variety of roles within...
Head of legal Netherlands | Google
An accomplished lawyer with over 15 years of experience in-house and at private firms, Milica Antic is a strong technology-orientated lawyer, specialising in privacy, data protection, copyright, ecommerce and platform...
Group DPO, general counsel and corporate secretary | Evraz Group
Since joining Evraz Group in 2015, Natalia Gulyaeva has provided legal advice on all matters of the Luxembourg Evraz Group company. Prior to this she was at EvrazHolding Russia as...
Legal and tax director | Belfius Bank
After nine years in Tier 1 law firms, Nathalie Delaere joined the Belfius Group in 2004, first as a tax expert and as of 2009 as a tax director and...
Senior counsel, legal director | Amgen
Nicolas Pourbaix’s role as senior counsel, legal director for multinational biopharmaceutical company Amgen, is a hybrid between a specialised anti-trust counsel, involving him advising the business on all areas of...
Legal director, Eurasia | VEON
Olga Prokopovych has a strong proven track record of diverse and extensive work in the areas of IT, telecommunications, law, privacy, M&A, corporate, commercial, competition, antitrust and intellectual property. Encompassing...
General counsel and company secretary | TCR
Patrice de Hemptinne is a general counsel with an accomplished international business expertise of more than 15 years with major top-ranked in-house and law firm experience. De Hemptinne is currently...
Chief legal officer | Lebara
Paul Van Straaten is a business minded general counsel with extensive international experience in telecommunications and IT, IP, compliance, government relations, and anti-money laundering. He currently serves as chief legal...
Legal director privacy - EMEA | Uber
Highly experienced privacy lawyer, Pein van Noort has served as legal director for privacy for Uber’s EMEA operations since January 2016. Prior to joining Uber he served as legal counsel...
Senior vice president legal, IT, M&A; group general counsel | Bekaert
Philip Eyskens has amassed a lengthy career with Belgian-based steel wire transformation and coating business, Bekaert, a company that employs almost 30,000 staff worldwide and operates in 120 countries. Joining...
Group legal counsel and M&A manager | Bekaert
After two and a half years as a corporate lawyer, Pieter-Jan Vandevelde felt ready for a new challenge in business law, transferring to an in-house role in a big international...
Group general counsel - head of legal and compliance - head of M&A | Solvay
Since Quitterie de Pelleport joined Solvay, the company has been through a large number of M&A transactions (55 in the past six years) and she has had the opportunity to...
General counsel Benelux | AccorHotels
Samia Guessabi-Colombijn has practiced in multinational environments, having both worked and studied in England and Italy and eventually settling in the Netherlands. She currently serves as the general counsel for...
General counsel Europe and global general counsel food and refreshment | Unilver
An internationally proficient lawyer, Sarah Woodhouse has been with Unilever for over 15 years and moved to the Netherlands to take on her current position in July 2018. Prior to...
Group general counsel | Veon
Highly recognised for his contribution to the media, technology and telecoms sectors, Scott Dresser has gained an unparalleled reputation for leadership in complex corporate transformations. Dresser, who oversees VEON’s 300-strong...
General counsel | M7 Group
With extensive experience providing legal support and advice in Europe, including Russia and CIS countries, Serge Debrye has gained a reputation for being a business orientated and result driven team...
General counsel EMEA | COFCO International
Distinguished lawyer Sheila Jassies is a highly experienced in-house counsel based in Rotterdam. She has experience in corporate governance, international contracting and serving as a board of directors management and...
General counsel Benelux | Unilever
Simone Pelkmans started her career in 1995 at the Dutch law firm NautaDutilh where she worked for a little over four years in the firm’s IP and corporate law department....
Vice president and general counsel | APM Terminals
Susanne Marston is an experienced legal counsel who fully understands the business, partnering with executive leaders to accelerate global business goals and how to build a strong team with a...
General counsel Europe | Mastercard
Experienced in the technology and payments industry and as the general counsel for Mastercard’s operations in Europe, Thibaut Gregoire leads the legal, compliance, regulatory and public policy functions across 55...
Director of legal affairs and integrity | ASR Nederland
Thomas Oremus has served as the director of legal affairs and integrity at major Dutch insurance group, ASR Nederland since May 2015. He previously served as head of corporate law...
Chief legal officer and company secretary | Nostrum Oil & Gas
Thomas Hartnett has over 25 years of multi-jurisdictional experience in Europe, the US, the former Soviet Union and Asia. Over the years he has accumulated extensive experience in oil and...
Executive vice president legal | Malvern Panalytical
Tom Alexander Mulder has received numerous glittering nominations with peers describing him as ‘an innovative general counsel who has integrated the legal function with the business’, and ‘a real strategic...
Vice president legal international operations | Syniverse
Tom Ford started his career training and then qualifying in the corporate department of what is now Norton Rose Fulbright, working in London and Singapore. After a few years in...
General counsel | Dragone
Tulay Sonmez joined Belgian creative company Dragone – which specialises in the creation of large-scale theatre shows – in May 2015. She previously took on private practice roles, serving as...
EMEA general counsel | Align Technology
Vanessa Carpano-Chauvin has practiced law for over 25 years in Paris and Amsterdam, professionally thriving in a global multicultural innovative companies with a focus on the healthcare sector. Over the...
Legal director | Apla Blockchain
Throughout his career, Vitaly Bondar has been engaged in the legal advisory work both as an in-house and private practice lawyer. 10 months ago, Bondar took up the role as...
General counsel and member of management board - EMEA | Sonos
Volker Weisshaar has over 20 years of experience in international legal and compliance functions, at both global enterprise organisations and at start-ups, including experience regualting IPO’s. Weisshaar has a strong...
Vice president legal affairs and general counsel Tommy Hilfiger | PVH Europe
Yu Lian de Bakker started her career in 1995 at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, one of the leading law firms in the Netherlands, predominantly focusing on corporate law, banking and...
Head of legal department | Société Générale
Zoran Milovanovic is responsible for two teams within the Société Générale Bank & Trust legal department, supervising the structured finance activities in a wide range of areas. Having served as...
Formed by the political and economic union of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the Benelux region is a strong economic force, integrated by a customs union formed in 1944 and solidified in 1958 with the signing of the Treaty of the Benelux Economic Union. Benelux has since benefitted from becoming the first completely free international labour market as well as facilitating free movement of capital and services – qualities that have broadened and deepened economic cooperation. With 28 million inhabitants and occupying a significant geographical scope, today Benelux generates approximately 8% of Europe’s total GDP.
With the new Benelux Treaty signed in June 2008, the focus of this cooperation has shifted to the three key themes of internal market and economic union, sustainable development and justice and home affairs. These areas are substantively assisted by the Benelux in-house legal community, which works in tandem with business colleagues and other stakeholders to ensure regulatory and legal processes are followed through ethically, sustainably, and in alignment with strategic goals.
General counsel in the region are also noticeably exhibiting a shared interest in building and developing the future generation of young in-house lawyers, providing and encouraging dynamic training opportunities and building diverse and highly-talented teams. Such initiatives and the plethora of corporate legal talent across the three countries mean the region is in good stead regarding its immediate and more long-term future.
In this inaugural GC Powerlist: Benelux we are pleased to highlight some of the region’s leading corporate counsel. To put together the list, we canvassed opinions from both law firms’ partners and in-house counsel in Benelux. We identified lawyers who are not only technically gifted and highly trained, but have also utilised their legal knowledge strategically alongside keen business insight to make a positive impact towards their organisation’s success.
Sara Mageit
Senior research analyst, GC Powerlist series
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are proud to be sponsoring this inaugural GC Powerlist: Benelux which recognises the crucial role of the legal team, and specifically the contribution of general counsels (GCs) and heads of legal in leading these teams to successfully support the ambitions of the companies they represent.
Businesses always have to adapt to change, be this increased regulation, stiffer competition, improving corporate, environmental and social responsibility, managing risks and balancing board diversity. The role of the GC has become pivotal in helping organisations navigate these changes, rise to the challenges and adapt their business models quickly and securely. Often managing legal teams across multiple geographical locations and understanding jurisdictional legal and regulatory nuances, the GC has a broad remit to ensure that cross-border activities can thrive. It is not only core legal skills that are required for the successful GC, but managing the internal department, external counsel, budgets and profitability are all key areas of the role. Now, as the legal sector embraces the rise in artificial intelligence, new challenges and opportunities emerge that will impact both people and the way legal services are delivered within an organisation.
The GC role is more commercially focused than ever. Directors are in the spotlight and are increasingly aware of individual and collective risks that can have a direct impact on themselves and their businesses. High-profile governance and compliance failures make the headlines and companies rely on their GC’s for strategic as well as legal advice. This puts many into a board role position which is both a logical and desirable step.
Equally, the role of outside counsel in helping GC’s achieve their aims has evolved and the goal of Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke is to work with GC’s seamlessly across the EU and beyond, providing together market leading legal and regulatory insight on subjects that matter to their business. The Benelux region is our home, and clients work with our three firms due to the genuine insight and experience our lawyers and advisors have within this region. Of course our advice goes beyond the EU and together we have over 800 lawyers in 18 countries dedicated to supporting our clients’ ambitions.
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are the exclusive members of the Lex Mundi network for Benelux. This means that our lawyers have worked together successfully on thousands of matters, providing in-depth understanding of local cultures, economies, laws, governments, trends and business climates in order to anticipate and react quickly to changes in the market. We are ready to take the next steps with you, wherever your projects take you and whatever challenges you face.
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are proud to be sponsoring this inaugural GC Powerlist: Benelux which recognises the crucial role of the legal team, and specifically the contribution of general counsels (GCs) and heads of legal in leading these teams to successfully support the ambitions of the companies they represent.
Businesses always have to adapt to change, be this increased regulation, stiffer competition, improving corporate, environmental and social responsibility, managing risks and balancing board diversity. The role of the GC has become pivotal in helping organisations navigate these changes, rise to the challenges and adapt their business models quickly and securely. Often managing legal teams across multiple geographical locations and understanding jurisdictional legal and regulatory nuances, the GC has a broad remit to ensure that cross-border activities can thrive. It is not only core legal skills that are required for the successful GC, but managing the internal department, external counsel, budgets and profitability are all key areas of the role. Now, as the legal sector embraces the rise in artificial intelligence, new challenges and opportunities emerge that will impact both people and the way legal services are delivered within an organisation.
The GC role is more commercially focused than ever. Directors are in the spotlight and are increasingly aware of individual and collective risks that can have a direct impact on themselves and their businesses. High-profile governance and compliance failures make the headlines and companies rely on their GC’s for strategic as well as legal advice. This puts many into a board role position which is both a logical and desirable step.
Equally, the role of outside counsel in helping GC’s achieve their aims has evolved and the goal of Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke is to work with GC’s seamlessly across the EU and beyond, providing together market leading legal and regulatory insight on subjects that matter to their business. The Benelux region is our home, and clients work with our three firms due to the genuine insight and experience our lawyers and advisors have within this region. Of course our advice goes beyond the EU and together we have over 800 lawyers in 18 countries dedicated to supporting our clients’ ambitions.
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are the exclusive members of the Lex Mundi network for Benelux. This means that our lawyers have worked together successfully on thousands of matters, providing in-depth understanding of local cultures, economies, laws, governments, trends and business climates in order to anticipate and react quickly to changes in the market. We are ready to take the next steps with you, wherever your projects take you and whatever challenges you face.
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are proud to be sponsoring this inaugural GC Powerlist: Benelux which recognises the crucial role of the legal team, and specifically the contribution of general counsels (GCs) and heads of legal in leading these teams to successfully support the ambitions of the companies they represent.
Businesses always have to adapt to change, be this increased regulation, stiffer competition, improving corporate, environmental and social responsibility, managing risks and balancing board diversity. The role of the GC has become pivotal in helping organisations navigate these changes, rise to the challenges and adapt their business models quickly and securely. Often managing legal teams across multiple geographical locations and understanding jurisdictional legal and regulatory nuances, the GC has a broad remit to ensure that cross-border activities can thrive. It is not only core legal skills that are required for the successful GC, but managing the internal department, external counsel, budgets and profitability are all key areas of the role. Now, as the legal sector embraces the rise in artificial intelligence, new challenges and opportunities emerge that will impact both people and the way legal services are delivered within an organisation.
The GC role is more commercially focused than ever. Directors are in the spotlight and are increasingly aware of individual and collective risks that can have a direct impact on themselves and their businesses. High-profile governance and compliance failures make the headlines and companies rely on their GC’s for strategic as well as legal advice. This puts many into a board role position which is both a logical and desirable step.
Equally, the role of outside counsel in helping GC’s achieve their aims has evolved and the goal of Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke is to work with GC’s seamlessly across the EU and beyond, providing together market leading legal and regulatory insight on subjects that matter to their business. The Benelux region is our home, and clients work with our three firms due to the genuine insight and experience our lawyers and advisors have within this region. Of course our advice goes beyond the EU and together we have over 800 lawyers in 18 countries dedicated to supporting our clients’ ambitions.
Arendt, Houthoff and Liedekerke are the exclusive members of the Lex Mundi network for Benelux. This means that our lawyers have worked together successfully on thousands of matters, providing in-depth understanding of local cultures, economies, laws, governments, trends and business climates in order to anticipate and react quickly to changes in the market. We are ready to take the next steps with you, wherever your projects take you and whatever challenges you face.
The Green Summit Finland 2023, hosted by Castrén & Snellman in Helsinki on 7 June 2023, marked the eight event in our Green Summit series associated with The Legal 500’s Global Green Guide, and the second time we held the summit in Finland. The event brought together leading practitioners and in-house counsel from across the country and region to discuss the legal sector’s contribution to a green transition.
Sakari Lukinmaa, managing partner at Castrén & Snellman, and Anna Bauböck, Global Green Guide editor at The Legal 500 kicked off the summit with a welcome address and some opening remarks.
Anna Kuusniemi-Laine, partner and head of sustainability at Castrén & Snellman, proceeded to chair the first panel which examined the evolving role of the general counsel and corporate legal teams. In this first discussion, the audience heard from speakers at frontrunner companies in the region: Nora Steiner-Forsberg, general counsel at Fortum; Christian Ståhlberg, general counsel at Neste; and Taru Uotila, general counsel at Aspo.
Kuusniemi-Laine set the scene before the discussion, pointing towards how today’s various crises from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine can in fact accelerate progress. Many companies in the region have strengthened their ESG commitments, yet ESG risks and opportunities are changing, and ESG issues are increasingly investigated or taken to court.
A key take-away of the first panel was that sustainable business is the only option, and a key theme was the powerful role inhouse counsel play when it comes to ESG and a green transition due to the influence legal teams can have in corporate decision-making. As Uotila put it: The legal department is there to achieve company goals, and those goals need to involve sustainability if the company wants to survive – therefore ESG is inevitably an integral part of the legal teams’ job.
Lawyers’ role is to balance those ESG risks and opportunities. As Steiner-Forsberg pointed out, lawyers should turn the current ESG regulatory tsunami into a business case, finding the benefits rather than focusing on the burden it may present.
Ståhlberg proposed the adoption of a holistic view, looking at the big picture. He stressed that creating a sustainable business is the only long-term solution, that businesses also need to remain profitable, and that therefore companies need to be innovative. In his opinion, lawyers should think about influencing with a long-term vision.
Two other main points of the discussion around the evolution of the GC role included: firstly, lawyers cannot work in silos, need to talk to colleagues in different functions, and need to stay curious, open minded and up-to-speed; and secondly, legal interpretation forms only a small part of lawyers’ role – today it’s about so much more than mere technical implementation.
After a lively Q&A session followed by a short coffee break, the second panel, chaired by Minna Korhonen, partner at Castrén & Snellman, looked at current trends in sustainable finance and the financing of the net zero transition. The audience heard from speakers and experts Juho Maalahti, country lead sustainable finance advisory at Nordea Bank; Antti Malava, head of sustainability insights & analytics at Danske Bank; and Vilppu Tarvainen, head of DCM Finland & Baltics at SEB.
First, the discussion focused on the context of the Nordic market: The Nordics have been frontrunners in sustainable finance with regulation driving the market, as well as a fear of missing out mentality, especially on the capital markets side. Maalahti illustrated this by pointing to the fact that 60% of corporate bonds were issued under the ESG umbrella in the Nordics, compared to around 30% across Europe.
Malava highlighted that today investors want to associate investments with something good for the world. Referring to the interplay between supply and demand, Tarvainen commented that the demand for sustainable finance was there, and regulation has helped to give it more supply. He added that there has been such a shift in balance that there is now a chance of running out of green assets.
A central part of the discussion revolved around the hot topic of greenwashing. All speakers agreed that the market is currently trying to understand what constitutes greenwashing, there is still no common definition and a great need for regulators to establish this. In particular, this needs to involve the distinction between intentional and unintentional greenwashing
Maalahti stressed how terminology matters, and also drew attention to the fact that some regulation hasn’t worked out the way it was intended. Tarvainen additionally commented on the problem of inverse greenwashing: What is sustainable enough; what is credible in investors’ eyes? He gave the example of a very sustainable product in a very unsustainable company. Malava illustrated how ESG ratings are measuring different things because of a lack of clear definitions.
When Korhonen asked about the scope of comparative data, Malava questioned the possibility of making data comparable when it is being measured differently. Again, the speakers agreed on the need for increased standardisation. As Tarvainen summed it up: We currently have lots of pieces of a big puzzle, but we don’t yet know how they need to be put together.
After another engaging Q&A from the audience and some brief closing remarks from Kuusniemi-Laine, the evening was rounded off by a drinks reception giving participants and speakers a chance to mingle, network and continue the conversation.