About

Johanna Vennström is the general counsel and business integrity officer for global consumer products company Unilever, covering the Nordics region which encompasses the countries of Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Based in Stockholm, she began her current role in 2013, and is responsible for supporting Unilever’s Nordic business strategies in relation to trademarks, marketing, customer negotiations, corporate governance, M&A, commercial disputes and litigation, compliance, data protection and route to market among other matters. As business integrity officer, she confidently leads work streams related to the prevention, detection and response to breaches of Unilever’s code of business principles. Vennström identifies her move from the European legal team to the Nordic general counsel role as a big change and highlight in her career, saying: ‘The transition was a big step professionally, and a great development opportunity which has helped me to manage heavy workload, and meet business expectations also when operating outside my comfort zone’. Highlights of her tenure at Unilever include the firm’s victory in a Swedish Market Court case, which related to a new product line launched by Unilever that was challenged by the market leader, who applied for an interim injunction, seeking to have the product pulled from the market. Vennström says that ‘through hard teamwork involving various business functions, we successfully defended our product and won the case’. Other highlights include the firm’s victory in commercially and legally complex court cases involving a key customer securing the withdrawal of a product which was confusingly similar to one of Unilever’s top selling products, misleading consumers on its commercial origin. Vennström adds that she has ‘worked proactively on increasing the visibility of the legal team, to ensure we become an integral part of the business and provide business oriented, clear and simple solutions. This has helped me and my team to be involved in business critical projects from the start, provide tailored solutions which drive growth while managing risks.’