Biography
Pia Heidenmark Cook,
Senior Advisory, Teneo; NED for multiple Boards; Member of the Senior Advisory Boards, Boards Impact Forum
Pia Heidenmark Cook is non-executive director in NGO and company boards across various business sectors, i.e. hospitality, food and materials innovation. She is a lecturer and keynote speaker, mentor and senior advisor to IKEA. She was Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Ingka Group (IKEA) between 2017-2021. IKEA is the world’s leading home furnishing retailer set out to become a people and planet positive business.
Pia led a team of sustainability professionals in the global office, as well as sustainability experts integrated across the retail, shopping Centre and customer fulfilment business across 30 markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, and was a member of the executive retail management team. Before that, she was head of Sustainability in the largest business division, IKEA Group Retail & Expansion, embedding sustainability in IKEAs retail operations and securing a more sustainable offer to IKEA customers. She was for several years (ended in 2017) co-chair of REAP, Retailers Environmental Action Programme, together with a member of the EU Commission.
Before joining IKEA in 2008, Pia worked as Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility at the Rezidor Hotel Group, operator of hotel brands Radisson Blu and Park Inn (300+ hotels in 50+ countries). During this period, Pia chaired the tourism branch of Prince of Wales Business Leader’s Forum, a membership organization for all major international hotel brands.
Pia holds both a Technical Licentiate degree and a M.Sc. in Environmental Management, from the University of Lund, Sweden, and a M.Sc. in International Business Administration and Economics from Uppsala University, Sweden. She has lived in France and Belgium, but now lives in southern Sweden, with Canadian husband and two daughters.
Pia has worked with, lectured and studied CSR/sustainability related topics since 1996, across academia, consultancy and business, mainly across tourism and retail sectors.
