H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson leaves his post

  • Push-out Score determined
  • After almost 11 years in the position
  • Praise for Persson
  • Helena Helmersson taking over
  • Persson will remain as Chairman of the Board at H&M
  • Persson said 127 words

(exechange) — Stockholm, Sweden, January 30, 2020 — Karl-Johan Persson, chief executive of H&M, leaves his position. As announced by H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB in a news release on Thursday, January 30, 2020, Karl-Johan Persson leaves his post as chief executive officer at the Swedish fashion giant after almost 11 years in the role, effective immediately.

Karl-Johan Persson’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Helena Helmersson, most recently Chief Operating Officer of H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB.

H&M has already removed the name of Persson as Chief Executive Officer from the leadership page and lists Helena Helmersson as CEO of H&M Group.

“The timing is favourable”

Karl-Johan Persson’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. Stefan Persson said: “It is my desire that there will be a change in the chairmanship at the coming AGM and that Karl-Johan will take over my role as Chairman of the Board. It is a natural change, after 20 years as Chairman, to hand over to Karl-Johan, who has been CEO for more than 10 years. I will continue to be a committed owner, just as today, but from a different position. In addition, the timing is favourable for making this change now since we have gradually improved profits and have a strong position with many well-established brands, millions of customers worldwide and good financial strength. We have moved from one brand to become a multi-brand company with today nine brands. In recent years we have made substantial and necessary investments in our joint group infrastructure – mostly in logistics, tech, data and AI – investments that now are starting to pay off in terms of increased customer satisfaction, sales and profits.”

Persson will remain as Chairman of the Board at H&M

“Stefan Persson wishes Karl-Johan Persson to succeed him as Chairman of the Board at the AGM,” H&M said.

“Has decided to vacate the position of CEO”

H&M said: “After more than 20 years as Chairman of the Board, Stefan Persson has decided not to stand for re-election at the AGM on 7 May 2020. Stefan Persson wishes Karl-Johan Persson to succeed him as Chairman of the Board at the AGM. The Board of Directors has therefore decided that Helena Helmersson will succeed Karl-Johan as CEO of H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB.”

H&M further said: “Stefan Persson will now submit his proposal to the Nomination Committee. As a consequence of Stefan Persson’s decision, Karl-Johan Persson has decided to vacate the position of CEO. The Board of Directors has decided to appoint COO Helena Helmersson as Karl-Johan’s successor. Helena Helmersson assumes today her role as CEO of H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB.”

Share price decline

The announcement follows a decline in H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB’s share price of 48% since February 2015.

In the position of CEO since 2009

Karl-Johan Persson became CEO of the Company in 2009.

Karl-Johan Persson, born in 1975, has been the president and chief executive officer of H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB since July 1, 2009.

Before taking over as chief executive officer Karl-Johan Persson held an operational role within H&M from 2005, including working as head of expansion, business development, brand and new business.

Since 2000 Karl-Johan Persson has been a member of the boards of H&M’s subsidiaries in Denmark, Germany, the US and the UK. Between the years 2006 and 2009 he was also a member of the board of H&M Hennes&Mauritz AB.

Between 2001 and 2004 Karl-Johan Persson was CEO of European Network.

Karl-Johan Persson holds a BA in Business Administration from the European Business School in London.

His current external board assignments are the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in the UK and the GoodCause foundation.

Karl-Johan Persson is a member of the board of Ramsbury Invest AB and since 2013 a member of the board of H&M Foundation.

Karl-Johan Persson is a shareholder in Ramsbury Invest AB, and also personally holds 12,136,289 class B shares in H&M.

Push-out Score determined

The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.

exechange reached out to H&M and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 5.2020 ($).