Eline van Haeren | Royal Van Leeuwen

My name is Eline van Haeren. Since 2013, I am the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Royal Van Leeuwen. After obtaining my law degree, I left the Netherlands for almost 10 years to live and work in Brazil, Japan and Spain. Along the way I learned to speak Portuguese and Spanish and a little Japanese, and gave birth to three beautiful daughters in three different countries. Upon my return to the Netherlands, I started working as a legal counsel at Equens Worldline NV (formerly known as Interpay), a credit card and payment processor for the banks at the time. After that, I joined an international legal team as a Senior Legal Counsel EMEA at Carrier, a world leader in heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, owned by United Technologies Corporation in the USA. In 2013 I joined Royal Van Leeuwen.

Royal van Leeuwen ….More than tubes

Royal Van Leeuwen is an internationally operating trading company and specialist in steel pipes and pipe applications. The family-owned company, headquartered in Zwijndrecht, was founded more than 100 years ago in 1924 and is active across almost all industrial sectors. Van Leeuwen has 75 largely stock keeping branches in 32 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and North America. The company’s 2,200 employees have specialist expertise in sourcing, processing, project management, logistics, and inventory planning, and work closely with customers in its markets. The combination of a global logistics network and in-depth knowledge of products and customer applications makes Van Leeuwen a leading and unique player in its markets.

My Role & My Team

Since 2013, I am the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Royal Van Leeuwen. I am the head of the legal team which currently consists of three company lawyers and a paralegal. As Corporate Secretary I support the management board and the supervisory board with coordinating the supervisory board meetings and annual shareholder meetings and make sure we are compliant with rules of governance. This is a very rewarding role, especially in a family-owned company.

We are based at our modern headquarters located near Rotterdam, in Zwijndrecht. The office has a view on the Oude Maas river, as well as on our pipe stockyard. The legal team supports the global business of Van Leeuwen with the review of and negotiations on international large and at times complicated contracts with various customers and suppliers, ranging from the oil and gas sector to the automobile industry. We handle claims and litigation and are responsible for our global insurance program. We have a worldwide network of local lawyers which we consult from time to time. Since we have over 70 Van Leeuwen entities, we have a lot of corporate housekeeping to keep up to date in over 30 different legislations, so the paralegal in our team is indispensable.

A very exciting part of my job is M&A. And then mainly the “A” for acquisitions. In 2019, we doubled our company in size by taking over a large distribution company in Germany with businesses all over the world. After a successful integration in corona times (!) we became truly one company. Over the years we have acquired a variety of companies in Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Denmark and the UK. It is very inspiring to work with so many colleagues in all these different countries with their own cultures and backgrounds.

Our challenge: “The times, the times they are changing…”

How do we keep up, and more importantly: how do we stay ahead? And is AI the holy grail?

New (EU) rules in international trading are specifically affecting our global  pipe and tube business: CBAM, CRSD, import quota’s, original sourcing, sanctions, anti-dumping. And this all is happening in a very volatile world.

I feel that as our company’s legal team, we have to go back to the drawing board and reinvent ourselves…and fast…That is my challenge for 2026!