Team size: 30

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by the Ukraine crisis, attendant supply chain costs rising, and rising inflation. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen, and, if so, what does this entail?  

These risks were always there, which is why we had force majeure. It is just that this has become a reality, and the turnaround for that reaction time for that has become shorter. It is no longer the five- and ten-year horizon; it is only a two-to-three-year horizon in which you see things happening. And that is also the truth for any technology; that is a tool for any company trying to grow with leaps and bounds. The element of agility, being proactive and understanding the risk in the market is crucial to allow us to be more flexible and adapt to new technologies faster. This is the way that we manage risk. The pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have made us look at things from a different angle; the risk is much higher in companies with global connectivity, whether it be from technology, employment, supply chain or customer-base perspective. We aim to analyse risk quickly and be flexible and agile.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?    

The environment is a very critical part of the type of business we are in. Because we are in the business of “wood to fashion” does not mean that we are cutting down forests, it means we have forest areas where we do replantation, and there are life cycles of different types of species of plantation which we use for different types of things. A lot of pulp comes from the woods which fall naturally and we have also established the maximum traceability for responsible sourcing.

We also take recycling very seriously; we recycle a lot of used pulp from, for example, cotton from jeans and fabric, thrown away.

We are also at zero liquid discharge, which means that we have maximum water recyclability in our company, which is incredibly impressive for such a water-intensive industry; 70% of our production line requires water, and we are recycling that water. So that’s the level of focus that we have adopted. We are recognised worldwide for our hand in sustainability.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to lead a legal team?   

Leadership is a personal quality, and everyone has their own view of it.

I can only talk from my experience, but I recommend starting slow in trying to understand and realise that the way you do something may not be the same as someone else would. It is also essential to guide but not demand from your team; you draw the vision, and the people follow it. Trusting the people around you is also incredibly important, as it is impossible to know everything.