Baker McKenzie has appointed Kurt Haegeman as the new global chair of the firm’s Consumer Goods & Retail (CG&R) Industry Group, effective July 1, 2021.

He fills the role vacated by Alyssa Auberger, who was appointed Baker McKenzie’s first chief sustainability officer in October.

Haegeman has served as a member of the firm’s CG&R Steering Committee for the past four years, and is a competition partner in Baker McKenzie’s Brussels office, currently on secondment to Tokyo.

Haegeman joined the firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2006. He has represented CG&R clients on a wide range of complex, multi-jurisdictional antitrust matters, and has also been at the forefront of Baker McKenzie’s efforts to support the consumer and retail sector as it has responded to the pandemic, as part of the firm’s Resilience, Recovery and Renewal framework.

In becoming chair, Haegeman said: “I am honored to be leading such a strong and highly collaborative group. While the clients in our sector have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, it has been incredibly impressive to see how well the sector has adapted to a socially-distanced world, and in many cases grown despite these challenges. My heartfelt thanks go to Aly Auberger, for her charismatic and visionary leadership of the group since its inception in 2016.”

Commenting on this appointment, Baker McKenzie’s global chair Milton Cheng said: “I am delighted to welcome Kurt to his new role. He brings a sharp sector lens and years of experience to the role, including helping some of our clients most impacted by the pandemic. Kurt has been a source of strength and creative solutions for this sector, and I look forward to seeing this industry group flourish even more under his leadership.”