Biography
Pia Heidenmark Cook
Senior Advisor, Teneo and Eurazeo Planetary Impact Fund; Advisory Board Member, Decathlon and The Do Group; Board Member, Bupa, Max Burgers and Origin Materials
Pia Heidenmark Cook (Mrs) divides her time between senior advisor and non-executive director assignments across Europe and the US. She sits on boards in international companies operating in the healthcare (Bupa), sports retail (Decathlon), sustainable materials (Origin Materials) and restaurants (MAX Burgers) sectors. She is also Senior Advisor to the private equity company Eurazeo’s Planetary Boundaries Impact Fund, and to Teneo (CEO Advisory Firm), where she works with the Sustainability team to advise clients on how to develop and operationalise sustainability strategies.
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.
Pia has been recognised 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. An international speaker, Pia was also globally recognised for her TED talk, titled “How IKEA is Growing Business Whilst Shrinking Emissions” and in 2024, a survey by Sustainability Speaker’s Agency named her the most sought after speaker on sustainability. Her first book, “Embedding Sustainability” is released in July 2024. She is also mentoring young professional women in the sustainability space.
Films:
- Decade of Action Documentary by Wim Vermeulen and Bart Lombaerts, December 2020.
- TEDx Countdown, October 2020.
