About

Klaus Cannivé started his career as an associate in the New York Office of Clearly Gottlieb and worked more than six years for Cleary in New York and Cologne, focussing on M&A activities. His first in-house position was with Commerzbank in 2010, where he was in charge for complex capital markets and divestiture projects. From 2014 to 2016 he worked as general counsel EMEA for GfK where he had the chance to lead a legal team of a publicly traded company. At GfK he handled a complex MBO and carve out transaction which involved GFK entities in several jurisdictions. ‘It gave me a first-hand experience that detailed preparation and the focus on the commercially relevant aspects are the key aspects in deals with private equity investors’, he comments. Since 2016 Cannivé started to work as the general counsel of HARIBO, a family owned company with strong local roots and a great history. ‘HARIBO gave me the chance to assume non legal responsibility (heading global internal audit in addition to legal and compliance). My temporary assignment to the US just started while my responsibilities for the headquarters and other jurisdictions remain unaffected and I will return in 2020. I expect to further expand my understanding for the US market and the legal environment from a general counsel perspective’, he says. During his time in his current role, Cannivé has implemented a proactive style in the legal team, established legal and compliance trainings for top executives, improved global compliance culture by having better transparency and made clear allocation of responsibilities within the legal and compliance team. His efforts overall have provided the business with better protection against risks and better contract terms. Talking about his view on the role of in-house legal in the next few years, he says: ‘More flexibility and broad commercial background are required for general counsel. Digitalisation will change the way of working in the long term – with smaller teams and less standardised work by individuals. Also, changing expectations from the next generation of in-house lawyers and internal clients will require different managing and leadership styles’. During the course of the research for the GC Powerlist: Germany 2019, Cannivé took on a new role within HARIBO as head of legal, compliance and internal audit and group general counsel based in the US.