Profile

Helena Haapio

Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Quality (MQ), Contract Coach

Career

Helena Haapio , LL.M., MQ (Master of Laws, Master of Quality) works as Contract Coach with Lexpert Ltd based in Helsinki, Finland. She supports clients in defining and managing successful trading relationships, helping them use contracts to get better business results and stay out of legal trouble.

Before founding Lexpert Ltd Helena served for several years as in-house Legal Counsel for Wärtsilä Group companies in Finland, Norway, Sweden and the US, and three years as General Counsel for one of the Group's Divisions.

She is an author and editor, and her articles have appeared in several business and professional publications. Her latest book, co-authored with Prof. George Siedel, is Proactive Law for Managers: A Hidden Source of Competitive Advantage (Gower Publishing, 2011).

Helena is a Member of the Advisory Council of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, IACCM (www.iaccm.com), and the Founder and Coordinator of IACCM Finland. She is actively involved in the development of the Nordic School of Proactive Law (www.proactivelaw.org) and of the ProActive ThinkTank (www.proactivethinktank.com). She acted as Expert to the European Economic and Social Committee in preparing its Opinion on the Proactive Law Approach published in the Official Journal of the EU in 2009.

Helena has been nominated "Export Educator of the Year" by the Finnish Institute of Export FINTRA. She regularly conducts in-house and public workshops in various parts of the world on topics related to cross-border contracting and contractual risk management. She also acts as arbitrator.

LL.M. University of Turku; two-year course on Export Management, Finnish Institute of Export FINTRA; post-graduate Information Resources Management Program, Helsinki University of Technology; post-graduate Master of Quality Program, Helsinki University of Technology; Diploma in Legal Studies, University of Cambridge, England.