It’s always encouraging to see good people willing to get on board at Saab. Yesterday, Saab announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer, being Nils-Johan Andersson.
Swedish newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad has had a chat with Andersson, and Arild has been kind enough to provide a transcript for us.
——
Lindab Manager chooses Saab
Lindab CFO Nils-Johan Andersson is the new vice president and CFO at Saab Automobile.
Nils-Johan Andersson, 48 years old, will leave the Lindab Group after twelve years and become vice president and CFO at Saab Automobile. He describes it as a very difficult decision but it is a challenge that he just could not turn down.
- When this issue arose, it seemed so exciting that I wanted to give it a proper chance, says Nils-Johan Andersson.
- It is an exciting company with of course huge challenges ahead.
He took the decision after having gone through Saab’s and the owner Spyker’s business plan. He believes there’s a future for the Swedish car classic.
- Of course that’s my belief. They have reduced the costs to a level which makes it possible to make money when they sell around 80 000 cars per year. I consider the project as entirely feasible.
Otherwise, you would not have taken this job?
- No of course not. I had a fantastic time at Lindab which has a stable and international business. But this feels like a big challenge.
He has his roots in Småland and says that the family moved down from Stockholm to Ängelholm when he began as CFO at Lindab in 1999. Since then he has been involved in both delisting and relisting Lindab on the stock exchange.
- We ran the company as private equity firm until 2006 when we relisted the company and have since built up a good confidence in the stock market.
He has also served on the board of the ice-hockey club Rögle for seven or eight years, but he intends on leaving that position at the next annual meeting.
- It’s been an amazing journey with Rögle and the new arena. It is of course hard to leave the board.
When do you start in Trollhättan?
- We have not set any date. First I must see to it that the transition is working well here at Lindab.
The recruitment process to find his successor has already begun.
