About

‘The compliance and ethics team have, with their continuous efforts, made the organisation focus even more on how business is conducted, and conducting business in a responsible manner is key throughout the company. We have been recognised both this year and last year as a company on the list of the world’s most ethical companies, which is a strong recognition of these efforts’ states Maria Hemberg. One of Sweden’s most iconic brands, Volvo Car Group recently announced that new models launched from 2019 will be fully electric or hybrid-electric, precipitating new strategic and operational plans to be prepared for. Due to this, it is extremely important that the company’s legal, governance and compliance issues are all navigated smoothly. Maria Hemberg is key to these efforts through her role of general counsel and senior vice president group legal, with a remit that is truly global with team members based in Sweden, China, Russia, Germany, Brazil, the US and UK across four functional units; legal, intellectual property, compliance and ethics and corporate governance. With 55 employees reporting to her in total, Hemberg remains close to the upper echelons of the business, being a member of the executive management team and directly reporting to the CEO. Detailing her role further, Hemberg explains her leadership of Volvo Cars’ corporate governance includes a number of measures such as ‘preparation of board meetings, record keeping, handling of formalities related to shareholders’ meetings [and] governance of various subsidiaries and affiliated companies’. Whilst also chairing the disclosure committee that is responsible for the oversight of Volvo Cars adherence to the market abuse regulations, Hemberg reviews ‘all quarterly reports as well as the annual report from a legal perspective’ as well as chairing Volvo Cars global compliance committee and sustainability board, alongside responsibility for Volvo Car Group’s sustainability governance. Displaying her commitment and effectiveness around sustainability issues, Hemberg explains how she was ‘allowed to present [Volvo’s] “omtanke” sustainability framework at a UN global compact summit in New York’, which remains one of the highlights of her career so far. This wide breadth of responsibilities have brought a number of other career highlights for Hemberg, and she explains that the development of a ‘strong culture’ within her teams allows them to work as ‘one global team with common values and goals’, which she states is an ‘important accomplishment’ and one she is particularly proud of. Her team’s work is highly respected by internal clients within Volvo Car Group, Hemberg explaining that her team has ‘top engagement scores’ thanks to its diligence and talent stemming from the assembling of a ‘truly diverse management team with team members from Sweden, France and the US [and] a balanced gender composition with very diverse competencies and experiences’. Hemberg’s vast array of achievements also include Volvo Car Group’s entry to the bond market and the establishment of joint venture company Zenuity, which focuses on ‘software development of autonomous driving car technology’, showing her willingness to confront complex and cutting-edge developments in the market. Lastly, she cites Volvo Cars purchase of 30% in Lynk & Co – a new Chinese car brand – as another ‘strategically important’ transaction on behalf of the business, further proving her value-adding and business-enabling output as one of the preeminent legal professionals in the sector.