Pia Heidenmark Cook

Biography

Pia Heidenmark Cook is a senior advisor to Ingka Group/IKEA, where she held the position as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) between 2017-2021. Pia is currently a non-executive director in NGO and company boards across various business sectors, including retail, hospitality, food and materials innovation. She is also a frequent lecturer and keynote speaker on sustainability and business transformation.

During her time as CSO, Pia led a team of sustainability professionals in the global Ingka Group office, as well as sustainability experts integrated across the retail, shopping Centre and customer fulfilment business across over 30 markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. She was also a member of the executive retail management team. Prior to 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.