Signe Viimsalu - Head of Insolvency Division, Estonia

Signe Viimsalu was appointed as the first so-called Insolvency Ombudsman of Estonia in January 2022 with the term of 5 years.

Signe started her diverse career as a Lawyer in 1998 at Intrum Iustitia, Europe's leading Credit Management Services' company. In 2001 Signe joined Enterprise Estonia to provide legal expertise and implement the quality management systems needed to draw down on EU structural funds to Estonia for years 2004- 2006 and 2007-2013. In 2006-2007 she held two positions at the Ministry of Justice of Estonia. While her advisory tasks were connected to the supervision of insolvency practitioners, coordination of international relations and law-making, she also acted as Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry. In 2007 Signe moved to the Estonian Development Fund to set up the first public VC fund and fund manager structures. In 2011 after defending her doctoral thesis on cross-border insolvency proceedings, Signe joined Glimstedt, the regional law firm in order to set up Corporate Advisory and Finance arm. In years 2013-2014 she was the first CEO of the Estonian Business Angel Network EstBAN. After that she has working mostly as an independent consultant for various governments, companies and NGOs. One of the change management projects has been consolidation and re-design of grant implementation system for the Ministry of Finance in Estonia with performance-based state budgeting system in years 2016-2019. After that she served as an Associate Partner at Ernst & Young Baltic AS in Estonia creating new innovative legal solutions to its global clients. During Covid-years Signe helped to change pension services at Social Security Fund due to pension reforms in Estonia. She has drafted several laws, worked with and for the European Commission and World Bank as an independent expert.  

Signe holds Mag.Iur (2007) and Ph.D (2011) in international insolvency law from the Netherlands and Estonia. In 2018 she received two global executive MBAs, one from University of Minnesota and another one from Vienna University of Economics and Business.