About

The ASSA ABLOY group is the global leader in access solutions, offering products and services related to openings, such as locks, doors, gates, entrance automation and identity management solutions. ASSA ABLOY employs 48,500 staff with operations all over the world, achieving a revenue of SEK84bn in 2018. The group’s headquarter functions are organised in a group centre located in Stockholm, and the group centre legal team is responsible for handling all legal issues related to stock exchange listing, debt capital markets, global M&A processes, investor relations, insider management, contacts with regulators and the litigation management process. In addition, the team has a governance role in designing and setting standards as well as following-up on the implementation of globally applicable legal and compliance policies. In addition to group general counsel Johan Ahlgren who is responsible for managing the overall legal function of the group, the team is replete with legal talent. Other key team members include corporate legal counsel Karolina Ericsson who is responsible for treasury, finance and corporate matters; head of compliance Fredrika Andersson Berger who handles group-wide compliance programmes; group data protection manager Sara von Eckermann, responsible for the group-wide data protection compliance programme; and legal counsel Henrik Jäger who manages IP-related legal matters at the group centre and the group-wide R&D centre Shared Technologies. During the last two years the team has established the group compliance function to drive compliance matters across the group, including the build-up of dedicated compliance resources in all divisions. The team has also been involved in some significant deals recently, such as providing legal support in connection with the acquisition – subject to regulatory approvals – of the majority stake in the listed company agta for a record for a price of approximately €502m, and contributing to the refinancing and negotiation of a €1.2bn multi-currency revolving credit facility with a group of 15 banks. According to Ahlgren, the team culture can be condensed into the following sentence: ‘To continuously improve the practises and processes regarding the legal areas for which we have responsibility by taking a step-wise and risk-based approach’.