One of the top corporate social responsibility experts in the Nordic countries specialising in human rights issues, Parul Sharma, will join Stora Enso as Vice President, Global Responsibility, for the Renewable Packaging Business Area on 18 June 2012. Renewable Packaging, headed by Mats Nordlander, is the Business Area responsible for instance for Stora Enso’s integrated pulp and board mill investment in Guangxi, southern China.

Since 2004 Parul Sharma has been working on CSR issues and human rights strategies for Swedish companies operating in Asia. She has acted as Human Rights Advisor to Amnesty Business Group, the European Commission and the European Public Law Centre. Three books on human rights and economic and social rights issues written by Parul Sharma have been published. In 2011 she was ranked as the most influential CSR expert in Sweden.

“We warmly welcome Parul Sharma to our team as she complements our current competences and can help us better understand our challenges, identify actions needed and implement changes in our demanding investment environments, especially in Asia. Social and human rights aspects of corporate responsibility are becoming increasingly important for all global companies, and openness and transparency are key issues for obtaining licences to operate in growth markets,” says Mats Nordlander, Executive Vice President, Renewable Packaging.

Parul Sharma joins Stora Enso from Sandvik AB, where she has worked as Global Head of CSR Auditing. She has trained and advised more than forty Swedish companies, investors and government agencies on how to integrate CSR practices into business operations.