Maria-Pia Hope will be the new Managing Partner (MP) of the Stockholm office and the new CEO of Vinge commencing 2 April 2012. During the course of her career, she has managed, among other things, Vinge’s team which acted for the Swedish National Debt Office (Sw. Riksgälden) in relation to Saab and has also been a board member of Vinge Stockholm for four years.
Great experience
Maria-Pia has been working at Vinge since 1996. Her first 10 years were spent in London, partly as head of Vinge’s former London office. Her specialist practice area is banking and finance and although Maria-Pia’s main focus will obviously be on her MP duties she is hoping that she will be able to devote at least some of her time to operational matters. Maria-Pia started her legal career with an LL M from Lund University. She continued as an Erasmus student at the University of Edinburgh followed thereafter by a Master of Laws at Harvard in the U.S.
“I am going to continue our efforts to be more proactive in what we do, both towards clients and within the organisation itself. We are facing increasingly tough competition and it is important to stay focused at all times and to earn the faith and confidence of our clients as their strategic adviser. We need to continue demonstrating that we understand the commercial challenges faced by our clients and the context within which our advice is provided,” says Maria-Pia.
Well prepared
She will be taking over from Michael Wigge who has been MP for almost the last five years and in total for approximately nine years. Maria-Pia has been closely following Michael’s work for the last few months. They have also served together on the board of Vinge Stockholm for the last four years which contributes to a consensus on important issues, something which Maria-Pia views favourably and believes results in continuity.
“Initially I am going to focus on becoming more intimately acquainted with the practical aspects of the business and all its structures and processes. I have been a board member for a fairly long time so I already have a good picture although of course a greater degree of awareness in this respect is demanded of an MP,” Maria-Pia continues.
Only time will tell how much of her time Maria-Pia will be able to devote to practising law whilst she is MP. However, she is now going to focus on being the first female MP to lead a major Swedish law firm.
