About

Synne Homble joined Cermaq in 2006 as the company’s first in-house lawyer. Prior to her hiring, all legal affairs were handled through external law firms, even though legal work had been rather extensive with significant international acquisitions and listing of the company on the Oslo Stock Exchange. She has built up the legal department to cover corporate governance, instructions and guidelines, handling of legal cases as well as a compliance program (code of conduct, tone at the top, training and control), and reducing the reliance on external advice. In 2007, Homble was appointed as chief legal officer and member of Cermaq’s corporate management team, the first and still the only female member of the management team. In 2009, her responsibility areas in the corporate management team were extended, giving her a broad responsibility to lead Cermaq’s corporate development as responsible for legal, HR, communication and sustainability/corporate responsibility. Speaking on the role she concedes that ‘this position has given me a unique platform for influencing the broader direction of the company and to strengthen the corporate functions as contributors to the company’s value creation. In the last few years Cermaq has been at centre of some of the largest transactions in Norway’. At the end of April 2013, Marine Harvest launched a public offer for all outstanding shares of Cermaq. ‘Before the launch of Marine Harvest’s offer, we had already been through an intensive process in Cermaq to conclude agreements with intention to acquire the listed company Copeinca ASA, with operations in Peru’. Cermaq’s Board recommended against the offer as it was not found to reflect the underlying values, Marine Harvest then initiated a campaign to influence Cermaq’s shareholders to vote down the Copeinca transaction. Marine Harvest’s offer was increased but still turned down by the Cermaq shareholders and the events calmed down when Cermaq sold its fish feed division, EWOS, for an enterprise value of NOK 6.5 billion to the private equity funds Altor and Bain Capital. In 2014, Cermaq was acquired by the Japanese company Mitsubishi Corporation. ‘I functioned as a project manager and coordinator of different work streams in addition to leading the legal work. In the commercial negotiation meetings, Cermaq was represented by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Board, the CEO and myself’. The media attention was high, the work load was extreme, day and night, and the values and interests at stake were significant and contradicting. In addition to her role at Cermaq, Homble is the deputy chair of the Board of Directors of Statnett SF and a member of the Norwegian OECD contact point for responsible business, appointed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.