Senior Compliance Officer till Polarium

Tell us more about yourself and your career journey so far?

I was born in Australia, but grew up in Mumbai. When I was 16, I moved to California for school, college and lawschool, and then I was an EU trade/sanctions lawyer in Brussels (private practice with US firms) for about 10 years. I moved to Sweden in 2014, and have focused on legal, corruption and trade issues at global companies like Ericsson, Electrolux and now Polarium. Being the Head of Compliance at Electrolux, and now Polarium, has been incredibly rewarding. Compliance is really special because it is based on law and policy. But it is also about how people do their jobs on a day to day basis, how organizations function, local cultures, how to communicate, and how to scale. In a great compliance organization, different skill sets are critical.

After moving to Sweden, you worked for Ericsson and Electrolux, why did you choose to join Polarium?

A couple of reasons. First, the CEO level and Board considered Compliance a core need right at the outset. From an intellectual and professional perspective: it is a fast-growing company in almost every continent, and the need for anti-corruption, antitrust, and trade sanctions compliance was strong. From a values perspective, I wanted to do something that had an outsized impact on climate change – one of the biggest levers to combat climate change is electrification of the grid, and Polarium sits in that crucial space. I should also mention that Polarium is working on new technology that is continually developing, which from a compliance perspective, is really great because you get to look at cross-border trade issues and questions of national security and policy.
Finally, the atmosphere and culture is very energizing and positive. People are open, collaborative and talented.

You are hiring a Senior Compliance Officer now, what can the right candidate expect to get out from this role both in short and long term?

Since the company is new and the compliance function is new, there is a lot of space to take ownership in various areas of the compliance organization. Their skill-set and strengths, whatever they may be, will be highly valued and there is place to expand as the company grows. Also, as I mentioned, compliance is very visible not only operationally but at CEO and Board levels. From a long-term career perspective, it is experience and network in an exploding industry.

What is the absolute best thing working for Polarium and what will the candidate for this role get having you as her/his manager and colleague?

Truly, the ability to build from the ground up. To think about scaling compliance across the globe, without having to deal with legacy processes or systems. Compliance has incredibly high place on the company’ strategy and agenda. We are very collaborative with our friends in Sales, People and Culture, Finance, Operations, R&D. We sit in the same organization as Legal, Sustainability, Risk& Governance and IT. We are building something together and we are surrounded by very talented people. It has been one of the more rewarding places to work in my career and I feel fortunate to work within excellent teams.