Johan Huizing continues to impress peers for his work at Itron, a world-leading US technology and services company dedicated to the resourceful use of energy and water. Covering the entire EMEA region, he leads the legal team based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. He joined Itron two years ago because he was ‘attracted by the IoT possibilities of the water, gas and electricity metering and “smart city” business’ and despite his short time at the company has already facilitated significant internal changes.

These include improving the efficiency of contracting processes by implementing a software tool that improves the contracting lifecycle. Explaining part of his management style, Huizing says, ‘when managing a legal team and resources, we must constantly insist in process improvement and defining the responsibilities of all lawyers in the department, so that the lawyers feel empowered to do the right thing in a framework that is clear’.

For Itron’s strategy in the region he has worked on several large long-term public infrastructure deals in Europe and Africa, either publicly funded or financed by international organisations, as well as M&A transactions and the sale of real estate. Prior to Itron, Huizing was responsible for the EMEA legal operations of US public semi-conductor company Atmel Corporation for 14 years. Before that he worked for IBM, his first in-house employers, for 12 years in various capacities across European cities, namely, Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna and Amsterdam.