About

Anna Jonsson joined the Swedish dairy farmer, Skånemejerier, in 2010 as an external legal consultant. After closing a large business transaction, she was hired as general counsel in January 2011. During summer of 2011 she also took on the HR director position in addition to being head of legal. This dual role Jonsson holds presents some unique challenges that she has taken in her stride. However following a major restructuring the roles were split again in 2015 and Jonsson’s new role is legal director for Skånemejerier, and its parent company, Lactalis. Covering the latter’s operations in Scandinavia, Germany, Poland and Baltic countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary and the UK. As general counsel at Skånemejerier, Jonsson built the routines and structures of corporate and legal matters with the aim of taking preventive and proactive measures. She implemented a digital agreement management system and a knowledge management database with standard form agreements in addition to compliance and competition training. One of her biggest achievements at Skånemejerier came in June 2012 when the company was sold to French company, Lactalis. Jonsson led the transaction and due diligence work, by negotiating with the purchaser and arranging formal procedures to receive approval of the transaction by the 600 members of the economic association. As the transaction also included major restructuring activity, where most of the business was transferred between two legal entities, Jonsson led the integration process. She enjoys the operative element of her role saying she sees herself as ‘being part of the business, not “only” being a legal support function’.