Taking responsibility
Our ambitions as an enterprise foundation, owner, philanthropist and investor are anchored in a strong set of values and a commitment to drive and promote sustainable and responsible practices across our operations.
With limited operational activities and a small footprint, our responsibility goes beyond our organization. We strive to lead by example, setting clear expectations for the company we own, our grantees and our asset managers.
We aim to be recognized for exercising good governance, promoting diversity and inclusion, and encouraging climate transition.
This is where we dedicate our attention and detail our progress and commitments. Learn more and find cases below.
Exercising good governance
Promoting diversity and inclusion
Encouraging climate transition
Exercising good governance
We have a responsibility to operate with integrity and to be transparent about how we work, our priorities and strategies. We consider strong governance, ethical behavior and transparency to be foundational factors across all our activities, and we believe that building and maintaining high standards is fundamental for our long-term success as owner, philanthropist and investor.
We fully comply with the Recommendations on foundation governance; have a whistleblower scheme in place; have developed a set of key tax principles that apply to the LEO Foundation and our subsidiaries, including LEO Holding and LEO Pharma; are a signatory to the Danish Tax Code of Conduct; and have an ESG policy for our investment activities. We have also developed a dedicated Code of Conduct to ensure high ethical standards throughout our own organization and among our key stakeholders.
We have implemented a set of principles for engaged ownership of LEO Pharma reflecting our commitment to promoting good governance, transparency and sustainability throughout the company.
Our commitments toward 2025
Increase transparency of the LEO Foundation’s societal impact
Support LEO Pharma in preparing to meet public market requirements for good governance and ESG
Promoting diversity and inclusion
We believe that diversity of talent, equitable practices and an inclusive culture are key contributors to an engaged workplace, providing the basis to achieve our ambitions. We take an active approach to promoting diversity and inclusion across all of our work – as an employer, company owner, investor and philanthropist.
We have a dedicated focus on diversity and inclusion, including a focus on gender balance. We strive to ensure at least 40% of the underrepresented gender. Progress includes:
- Defined targets for gender diversity at Board and management level at LEO Pharma
- 43% of the LEO Foundation’s Board members are women
- 40% of Foundation employees at management level are women
Our commitments toward 2025
Build diverse Board, leadership, and scientific review panel teams. We strive to ensure at least 40% of the underrepresented gender.
Act on promoting gender balance and reducing unconscious bias to support an inclusive research environment within health science.
Encouraging climate transition
Climate is a topic of growing importance across our activities and one that we consider particularly important to address in relation to LEO Pharma and our financial investments, which together comprise the vast majority of the LEO Group’s business activities.
We expect LEO Pharma to align with the UN Paris Climate Agreement. The company’s climate targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2022.
Our financial investments are anchored in our ESG policy, the financial portfolio is subject to defined norm screening through the UN Global Compact, and we ensure that all listed mandates are subject to ESG screening, excluding for example companies involved in unconventional fossil fuel extraction.
Our commitments toward 2025
Further develop investment management activities in support of the climate transition.
