Corporate Governance Principles in Denmark - Ticking a Box or Driving Shareholder Value?

Peter Schøtt Knudsen, General Counsel, Royal Unibrew A/S, Denmark

Any Danish company which has its securities admitted to trading on a regulated market has been exposed to regulation on Corporate Governance throughout the last decade. The Danish Committee on Corporate Governance (“the Committee”) has issued recommendations (“the Recommendations”) for listed companies based on the so-called comply or explain principle. The principle requires companies to state either that they comply (and how the company comply) with a specific recommendation or explain why they do not follow a specific recommendation.

Peter Schøtt Knudsen was born in November 1973 in Haderslev, Denmark. A graduate from the University of Copenhagen (Master of Laws) in 1998 and a former associate at the Law Firm Bech-Bruun, Peter was admitted to the bar in 2001. In addition to his legal background, Peter has taken extensive general management courses at Wharton Business School (USA) and IMD (Switzerland). In 2001, Peter joined the Novo Nordisk group as Associate General Counsel. In 2004, he was in expatriated to Switzerland as Legal Director in Zurich tasked with setting up and heading the legal function for the Novo Nordisk international regional sales activities. In late 2007, Peter joined LifeCycle Pharma A/S (now Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S), a Danish listed specialty pharmaceutical company as General Counsel and became a member of the management team in 2009, responsible for Legal, IP and Investor Relations/Communication. In late 2010, Peter assumed his current position as General Counsel of Royal Unibrew A/S.

Royal Unibrew A/S is the second largest brewery group and largest beer exporter in Scandinavia. Royal Unibrew operate as a leading regional player in a number of markets in Western and Eastern Europe and in the international malt drinks markets. Its head office is located in Faxe, Denmark and the Group comprises of 5 breweries and one soft drink producer. Royal Unibrew has about 2,500 employees world-wide and exports to approx. 65 countries throughout the world.