Vice President Intellectual Property

Svenska Cellulosa AktiebolagetSCA is a leading global hygiene and forest products company. The Group develops and produces sustainable personal care, tissue and forest products. Sales are conducted in about 100 countries under many strong brands, including the leading global brands TENA and Tork, and regional brands, such as Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Nosotras, Saba, Tempo and Vinda. As Europe’s largest private forest owner, SCA places considerable emphasis on sustainable forest management. The Group has about 44,000 employees. Sales in 2014 amounted to approximately SEK 104bn (EUR 11.4bn). SCA was founded in 1929, has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. For more information, visit www.sca.com.

Overview
Intellectual Property Rights are central in developing and maintaining SCA’s competitive advantage across the globe and constitute an important building block in our business strategy. The SCA IP department is globally responsible for all our intellectual property activities, strategically organized to meet our business priorities and hosted within SCA Global Hygiene Category.
We are now looking for a Vice President of Intellectual Property to provide strategic vision addressing current and future ways of leveraging our IP portfolio for maximum business impact and value creation. You will lead the continuous development of an integrated IP department set up as a strategic business partner to SCA’s businesses. The IP team is based in Europe, America and Asia and represent the full spectrum of IP management activites. As Vice President of Intellectual Property, you report to the President of SCA Global Hygiene Category in a senior role with executive management visibility.
The position is located in Gothenburg, Sweden.



Main Tasks
Lead the continuous development of an integrated IP department including patents, trademarks and design rights, set up as a strategic business partner to SCA’s businesses with a culture of learning, trust, integrity, performance and collaboration.
Advocate and secure the creation of IP rights to protect SCA innovations.
Responsible for the development and implementation of the category IP strategies to deliver on strategic objectives thorough support of brand, innovation and business priorities.
Develops the overall Hygiene IP strategy and long term direction of how to leverage and exploitate opportunities of IP for SCA.
Secure IP risk management in accordance with overall SCA direction.
Drive aggregation and analysis of IP, business and technology intelligence to provide direction and advice.
Support internal parties and the legal function in relations to litigations, agreements, M&As, JVs, and other strategic initiatives involving IP.
Drive development and management of methods, processes, tools, and software for executing IP strategies globally.
Develop highly skilled team members with a thorough understanding of SCA business ecosystem, competition and IP landscape.
Operate within a prescribed budget, optimize resource allocation, and ensure cost-effective management of external service providers.

Required Education & Experience
University degree preferably within mechanical or electrical engineering, and/or law.
A minimum of ten years of senior management and leadership experience working professionally in similar positions.
A well-proven track record of successful IP management and/or technical R&D.
Demonstrating IP strategic thinking at the intersection of IP, technology and business, preferably on an international scale.
Experience with managing IP issues in consumer goods and/or manufacturing industries is an advantage.
Excellent English skills, both verbally and written. Other language skills are meritorious.

Key competencies & Leadership capabilities
You are a proven leader with ability to build effective teams upon highly qualified professionals. Other required key capabilities are:

Have an understanding of the internal customer needs and turn insights to relevant actions.
Professional approach with innovative thinking.
Excellent Communications skills with the ability to articulate complex issues in a crisp manner to gain consensus on executive decisions.
Demonstrated team player and ability to sustain excellent relationships at multiple levels.
Act with respect and integrity and has got a broad-based credibility.
Is consistently motivating and influencing the business to take action with an open mindset and a positive attitude.
Takes responsibility and is accountable.
Analytical, proactive and clearly performance driven.

You will work in a fast-paced and ever changing business environment and must therefore be adaptable to change, as well as able to drive change.