Few leaders have made as big of a mark on the fast fashion industry as Helena Helmersson. Trends change faster than supply chains can keep up with them. Helmersson was in charge of H&M Group, the Swedish retail giant known for its stylish but affordable clothing. She not only guided the company through rough waters, but she also changed its moral compass. She was born in the rough north of Sweden, and her rise from a young business graduate to one of the most powerful women in the industry shows her strength, creativity, and dedication to sustainability. She stepped down as CEO in 2024, but her post-H&M chapter is already full of power plays in the boardrooms of brands like On and Mango. This shows that Helmersson’s influence is still very strong.
The Beginning of Life and the Fire of Ambition
Helena Helmersson was born in Skellefteå, a small town in Sweden’s Västerbotten County, in October 1973. The midnight sun casts long shadows over the vast forests and icy rivers there. She grew up in a remote, working-class area with her parents and two sisters. This taught her the value of hard work and community, which would later shape her leadership style. Helmersson went to college at Umeå University, where she got her Master’s degree in International Business from the Umeå School of Business and Economics in 1997. She was only 24, but she had a sharp analytical mind and a global perspective, and she was ready to climb the corporate ladder.
That same year, she got her first job in the fashion world when she became a business controller in the buying office at H&M in Stockholm. It was a small beginning—doing math for buying—but Helmersson quickly showed her worth. She became the buying section manager in just two years, showing that she had a natural talent for combining operational efficiency with creative foresight.
A Global Odyssey at H&M: Starting from Scratch
Helmersson’s time at H&M is like a map of how complicated the global clothing business is. She moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1999. Dhaka is the center of the world’s textile production. She worked there as an HR manager for production until 2007. Being in charge of factories in the supply chain, which included dealing with cultural and logistical problems, helped her become more empathetic and better at making plans. In later interviews, she said, “Those years in Bangladesh changed me,” stressing how they showed her the human cost of fast fashion’s glamor.
She moved from Dhaka to Hong Kong to be the department manager for underwear production. This helped her become even better at sourcing and quality control. In 2010, when she was back in Stockholm, Helmersson was named head of sustainability. This job would make her legacy. She led H&M’s social responsibility and supply chain efforts for the next ten years, building on a strategy that started in the 1990s but was supercharged for the 21st century. Her work was mostly about environmental audits, fair labor practices, and lowering the carbon footprint of a company that makes billions of clothes every year. H&M promised to use only 100% sustainable materials by 2030 while she was in charge. This made the brand a reluctant but reforming giant in an industry known for waste.
Promotions came quickly: In 2015, she became the global head of production in Hong Kong, where she oversaw a huge network of suppliers. In 2018, she went back to Stockholm as chief operating officer, in charge of growth, logistics, IT, and analytics. These jobs weren’t just names; they were places where Helmersson fought against overproduction, scandals involving unethical sourcing, and the rise of online shopping.
Getting to the C-Suite: A Historic Time as CEO
Helmersson made history on January 30, 2020, when she became H&M’s first female CEO and only the second person not in the Persson family to hold the position since the company was founded in 1947. She took over a $20 billion empire from Karl-Johan Persson, the founder’s grandson, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was about to hit. “Leading H&M is a privilege,” she said when she was hired. “It requires passion and an entrepreneurial spirit.”
Her four years in power were a masterclass in how to handle crises. As stores around the world closed because of lockdowns, Helmersson shifted H&M’s focus to online sales, which grew by 38% in 2020. She sped up efforts to be more environmentally friendly by starting programs to collect clothes that recycled millions of items and putting money into circular economy startups. But there were a lot of problems: inflation, geopolitical tensions, and unseasonably warm weather hurt sales, and H&M’s stock fell as people called for faster decarbonization.
Veckans Affärer named her Sweden’s “Most Powerful Woman in Business” in March 2014, before she became CEO. This shows how quickly she was rising in popularity. In 2020, Umeå University gave her an honorary doctorate from its Faculty of Social Sciences for her work to promote sustainability. Helmersson announced her departure on January 31, 2024, saying that she was tired of the job’s demands, even though she had received praise for it. “It’s been very hard for me at times,” she said, handing the job over to Daniel Ervér, H&M’s former brand head.
Helena Helmersson Net Worth
As of 2023, Helena Helmersson’s estimated net worth is between $10 million and $20 million USD. Her annual compensation as CEO of H&M reportedly ranged from $5 million to $12 million USD.
Helmersson served as CEO of H&M from 2020 until early 2024, becoming the first woman to lead the Swedish fashion giant. Her tenure was marked by a strong focus on sustainability and navigating challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain disruptions.
If you’re curious about her career path or influence in the fashion industry, I can dive deeper into that too.
A New Chapter of Influence Beyond H&M
Helmersson was true to her restless nature and jumped back into the fray right away. In June 2024, she became a member of the board of Quizrr, a Swedish digital training platform that her husband started. This brought together her personal and professional lives. The next year saw the addition of famous people: In May 2025, On Holding AG, a Swiss sportswear company, chose her to be an independent board member and a member of its Nomination and Compensation Committee. David Allemann, one of On’s co-founders, praised her “exceptional track record in retail, operations, and purpose-driven leadership,” saying that she could help the brand grow around the world.
In July 2025, Helmersson became a member of the board of Mango, H&M’s Spanish competitor. This shocked the industry. As chair of Circulose, a textile-to-textile recycling company that was born out of the ashes of the failed startup Renewcell, she’s pushing for partnerships like a licensing deal with Mango in June 2025 to help the company grow its chemical recycling technology. She told Forbes, “Circulose’s reboot is about real impact,” and she talked about how value-added services would help them get over past scaling problems. Stand.earth’s 2024 scorecard gave H&M top marks because of her important role in the company’s efforts to cut carbon emissions.
Helmersson, who is always learning, joined the Graduate School of Business alumni at Stanford’s Executive Program in 2024–2025. People are looking forward to hearing her talk about purpose-led growth at the World Retail Congress 2025.
Legacy: Changing the moral fabric of fashion
Helena Helmersson’s story isn’t about unchecked glamour; it’s about hard work and determination. She worked at H&M for more than 26 years and turned “sustainability” from a buzzword into a business necessity, showing that being profitable and good for the planet can go hand in hand. Her influence goes beyond boardrooms as she shapes the futures of On, Mango, and Circulose. She challenges the fashion world to put people and purpose first.
In a LinkedIn post from 2024 about leaving her job as CEO, Helmersson said, “Every day I have been amazed by the passion, teamwork, and entrepreneurial spirit.” That spirit lives on in her today, and it inspires a new generation to weave morals into their style. Helena Helmersson isn’t just a former CEO as of September 2025; she’s also the front guard of fashion.
