Keynote SpeakerPia Heidenmark Cook

Pia Heidenmark Cook is a result-oriented business leader (board director, advisor and former global chief sustainability officer) with 30+ years of international experience across multiple sectors and companies (e.g. IKEA, Rezidor Hotel Group, Eurazeo, Bupa, Decathlon, Teneo). Working mainly across Europe and North America.

Area of expertise is driving bottom-line value creation through sustainability, with extensive experience in business transformation, new business models (e.g. circular), change management, strategy development and execution, strategic communications, talent management, corporate governance and risk management.

Since 2021, a non-executive director and senior advisor, in large, mid-sized and small listed, private equity-owned or family-owned corporations headquartered in the UK, France, US, Sweden and Germany. She is serving as non-executive director on corporate boards across supply chain management (Achilles), and restaurants (MAX Burgers), and chairs the advisory board of the professional services company The DO Group. She is also Senior Advisor to the private equity company Eurazeo’s Planetary Boundaries Impact Fund, and to Teneo (CEO Advisory Firm). Previously, she was non-executive director on the board of Bupa (healthcare), Origin Materials (materials innovation) and Decathlon (sports retailer).

Prior, Pia worked at IKEA/Ingka Group for 13 years. The last five years (2017-2021) as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). At IKEA she led the development and implementation of the IKEA People and Planet Positive strategy. During this time, IKEA ranked in the top three most sustainable brands’ and managed to decouple carbon dioxide emissions from its commercial growth across the value chain. Pia has worked with sustainability topics since 1996, across academia, consulting, and business. She has lived in France and Belgium, is married to a Canadian and lives in Southern Sweden.

Author, experienced key-note speaker and lecturer on all aspects of sustainability and business transformation (Co-author of CSO handbook “Embedding Sustainability – How to drive organizational transformation”, Kogan Page, July 2024). Speaker/lecturer on sustainability and business transformation at e.g., Lund University (Sweden), Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (CISL), INSEAD, Boards Impact Forum and Competent Boards Executive Training in addition to several corporate events and conferences.

Pia has been recognized for her TED talk, “How IKEA is Growing Business Whilst Shrinking Emissions” and in 2024, a survey named her one of the most sought after speakers on sustainability. Pia has been recognized as one of the world’s top female leaders in sustainability and one of the world’s leading influences on climate change. In 2023, she was named Top 20 Sustainability Voices by the CEO Magazine and received the Global 50 Women in Sustainability Awards by SustainabilityX® Magazine. Pia was named top 10 female leaders in sustainability by WBCSD in 2018, and top 5 influencers on climate change agenda by the Climate Group, as well as top 100 climate influencers on Twitter in 2020.

M.Sc in Business Administration & Economics, International Program from Uppsala University and Technical Licentiate in Environmental Management & Policy from Lund University. Board director training in Corporate Governance from INSEAD and Styrelseakademin (Swedish Board Academy), and Executive Leadership trainings from McKinsey and Ruter Dam.