About

Philipp Voet van Vormizeele is general counsel at Outokumpu, which is one of the world’s biggest stainless steel manufacturers. The legal department as such came only into existence in January 2013 after the merger of Outokumpu group and Inoxum group (the latter previously belonged to ThyssenKrupp). Prior to this merger, Philipp Voet van Vormizeele acted as head of legal and compliance of Inoxum group. Paramount when structuring the legal department has been a ‘strong focus on the operative business, marked by dedicated responsibilities of individual lawyers for certain parts of the business’; he has also introduced new tools to better control the cost of external counsel. Among his career highlights was Inoxum’s spin off from the ThyssenKrupp corporation and the subsequent integration into Outokumpu. After ThyssenKrupp in 2011 opted for withdrawing from the stainless steel business operation, three options were pursued simultaneously: IPO, spin off or sale. In light of this, Inoxum was set up as an independent company where Van Vormizeele advised on the carve-out and entire legal structuring of the group. In 2012 the sale to Outokumpu took place, only fully taking effect in 2013. A particular challenge prior to this transaction was the ‘timely creation of Inoxum group between May and September 2011’.