Career Biography

Volker Weisshaar stands out as a seasoned and strategic legal leader at the forefront of legal innovation in the global technology sector. Currently serving as general counsel EMEA at Sonos Europe, Volker has been instrumental in shaping the company’s European legal and business operations during a pivotal scale-up phase. As a key member of both the EMEA executive team and the Global E-Commerce leadership team, he has played a central role in the company’s international expansion and legal transformation. Since joining Sonos in 2012, Volker has built the European legal function from the ground up. His broad remit includes commercial and IT law, digital marketing, software licensing, intellectual property, privacy, selective distribution, EU product regulations, corporate governance, employment law, litigation management, and more. His accomplishments are wide-ranging: from designing a next-generation selective distribution system for differentiated e-commerce rules to leading the successful establishment of Sonos’ operations in Japan. He also streamlined IP and distribution enforcement strategies across Europe and drove GDPR compliance across the region.

Prior to Sonos, Volker held the role of general counsel EMEA at NetApp, a Fortune 500 leader in data storage solutions. He was the first legal hire in the region and built a high-performing legal team of 14 lawyers across Europe, supporting the company’s growth from $USD1bn to $USD4bn in EMEA revenue. Notably, he founded and chaired the EMEA Business Conduct Council, consolidating compliance activities across the region. He also established the company’s Deal Lifecycle Management function, a new commercial operation unit responsible for managing complex proposals and contracts.

Earlier in his career, Volker played a key legal and commercial leadership role at Carrier1 International, a pan-European telecom startup backed by private equity and later listed on Nasdaq and Frankfurt. There, he secured critical carrier licences and a groundbreaking interconnection ruling in Germany. He began his legal journey with roles at Unisource Carrier Services and Talkline International, where he was a co-founder of the industry lobbying group VATM, advocating for market liberalization in Germany. Volker holds a law degree from the University of Freiburg and a certificate in European Integration from the Europa-Institut of Saarland University.

He is a qualified attorney in Germany and an alumnus of IMD Business School’s General Management Program. A multilingual professional fluent in Dutch, English, French, and German, Volker also brings a global mindset and deep cross-cultural competence to every role he takes on. Beyond his corporate work, Volker serves as a non-executive director and early-stage investor at PixFirst, a SaaS platform for photographers. A public speaker and a passionate advocate for smart legal strategy in high-growth environments, he is known for his ability to translate complex legal issues into practical business solutions.