PostNord seeking CEO after Lars Idermark resigns
Scandinavian postal operator PostNord is in the hunt for a new chief executive, after Lars Idermark resigned his position. Idermark who has been in charge for two years at the parent group of Sweden’s Posten AB and Denmark’s Post Danmark, has decided to take the president/CEO role at the forestry group Södra.
He has been a board member for the company for more than 10 years, and said today that the forestry industry was “very close to my heart”.
Fritz H Schur, the chairman of PostNord’s board of directors, said recruitment for a new CEO would begin immediately.
“I understand Lars Idermark’s decision and his motives to go to Södra, but of course I regret his decision,” said the PostNord chairman.
The next PostNord chief will have to continue the transformation of a company coping with steep declines in traditional letter volumes as Internet communications steadily dominate in Sweden and Denmark, while the huge potential that ecommerce offers the parcels sector is tempered by a price pressures resulting from a highly competitive market.
Idermark, 54, was appointed president and CEO of PostNord in October 2010, taking up the position at the start of 2011.
The University of Uppsala graduate was previously he was president and CEO of the Swedish Cooperative Union (KF), following a career that has seen him lead the Second Swedish National Pension Fund as CEO, and take senior roles in healthcare group Capio and various social sector banks and agricultural firms.
Idermark’s next company, Södra, is a forestry cooperative in Southern Sweden that employs around 3,800 people, supplying wood products to the construction industry, pulp to the paper industry and wood fuel to power plants.
Transformation
“I regret that I will not be able to complete this job”
During his tenure leading PostNord, Idermark oversaw the important upgrading of the company’s communications network, the change of name from Posten Norden to PostNord, and started a modernising and restructuring programme for the business to streamline mail operations and expand in the logistics field, including through a number of acquisitions.
“Lars Idermark has made great efforts over the nearly two years he has worked in PostNord,” said Schur.
“During the time of his leadership, the corporate strategy which is now being implemented in the Group was created. Both substantial cost efficiencies and import and developments for the future in the form of investments and acquisitions have been implemented.”
Idermark himself said today there was “never a right time” to change jobs, but said that as well as the draw of the forestry industry, he was also being motivated to make the move because the Södra headquarters are located in Växjö, southern Sweden, which is near his home, “so that my extensive commuting can cease”. PostNord’s headquarters are in Solna, close to Stockholm.
The outgoing CEO said of his time at PostNord that it had been “tremendously stimulating”
“PostNord is now in an intense transformation phase where we are adapting our mail business to new conditions while developing our logistics business, based on our recently established corporate strategy,” Idermark said.
“Naturally, I regret that I will not be able to complete this job.”
