Team size: 60

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

I think it is crucial to be even closer to the business colleagues in such times for two reasons: firstly, you have to understand the business situation to be able to help your colleagues succeed in exploiting the opportunities that arise in such challenging times. To facilitate this, you must truly understand which factors decide success or failure. Secondly, you have to be closer, as in such periods and the economic uncertainty they bring, businesses tend to take more risks. As a legal function, it is important to ensure we balance risk and opportunity in the right way. Our legal strategy is directly derived from our overall company strategy and focuses on how we need to steer the legal and compliance department to support achieving these strategic goals while at the same time ensuring compliance with the law. The legal strategy thus integrates our mission to “enable and protect.”

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?

One important project we supported was the launch of our new state-of-the-art loyalty programme at HUGO BOSS. The programme integrates into the HUGO BOSS app, combining traditional loyalty features like levels and points with innovative Web3 elements, enhancing a personalised omnichannel experience for members. Participating customers can collect and redeem tokens (NFTs), which are blockchain-based, through purchases and interactions across various channels. These tokens unlock exclusive products, unique brand experiences, and special offers from BOSS and HUGO, or sponsoring and cooperation partners. Our team helped shape the programme by answering unique and first-time questions around Web3, blockchain, IP, and data protection, to name a few.

Another ground-breaking programme is our Traceability Programme, which aims to get the organisation ready for CSRD, CSDDD, and other international laws. As a fashion company with a deep and complex supply chain, we already had sophisticated standards for gaining transparency in the supply chain. However, to fulfil the new legal requirements, whether existing or upcoming, we realised that we would only be future-proof if we aimed to achieve complete transparency throughout our value chain. My legal team extensively researched more than 20 different legal acts to develop a comprehensive overview of all the data and information we need to collect now and in the future to help design the programme.

How do you measure the impact of ESG initiatives on the company’s overall performance and reputation?

ESG is an integral part of our way of doing business. As such, ESG is an important criterion for executive pay. We measure our impact in many different ways, but an important one is our participation in the renowned Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which measures success and progress in various ESG categories, such as corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation, supply chain standards, and labour practices. It is the longest-running global sustainability benchmark worldwide and has become the key reference point in sustainability investing for both investors and companies alike. HUGO BOSS has been part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for multiple years in a row.

What role does the legal department play in promoting and ensuring corporate social responsibility in your organisation?

The legal and compliance department plays a pivotal role in promoting CSR within HUGO BOSS, one reason being the codification of many ESG requirements, where it is upon us to ensure compliance. However, by working on the laws, the team has developed a passion for CSR subjects and is at the forefront of many more initiatives not rooted in legal requirements.