Bjarne Tellmann
General Counsel, Pearson
Bjarne P. Tellmann is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Pearson PLC, the world’s leading education business. A FTSE 40 company with 40,000 employees in over 70 countries, Pearson provides a range of education products and services to institutions, governments and individual learners. The company recently sold its media interests, including The Financial Times and The Economist, but retains an interest in consumer publishing as co-owner of Penguin Random House. At Pearson, Mr. Tellmann leads a global legal team of approximately 200 people across six continents.
Mr. Tellmann previously served in various capacities at The Coca-Cola Company, including Associate General Counsel, General Counsel Asia-Pacific and General Counsel Japan. Prior to that, he was Deputy General Counsel of Coca-Cola HBC, one of the world’s largest independent Coke bottling groups, with 550 million consumers in 28 countries spanning Russia, Eurasia, Europe and Africa. Mr. Tellmann has also held legal positions at Kimberly-Clark and at the law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and White & Case LLP in various locations in Europe and the United States.
The Lawyer magazine recently named Mr. Tellmann as one of its “Hot 100” lawyers for 2015 and he was profiled in a cover article in the May 2015 edition of the same magazine.
He is a regular speaker, panelist and lecturer at conferences and universities in the United States and Europe.
Originally from Oslo, Norway, Mr. Tellmann is a member of the New York and Georgia Bars and is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales. He holds a Juris Doctor with Honors from The University of Chicago, a M.Sc. (Econ.) from The London School of Economics and a PG Dip. with Merit in European Competition Law from King’s College, University of London. He received his B.A., Summa cum Laude from Boston University.