Lego appoints new CEO to replace interim boss

  • by Emilio Sims
  • in Money
  • — Aug 11, 2017
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The Danish toy maker has swapped in a younger person to steer the company through what is becoming an increasingly digital world of play.

At the end of previous year, when longstanding Lego chief executive Jorgen Vig Knudstorp vacated the position to head up the new Lego Brand Group umbrella company, chief operations officer Bali Padda was installed in the toy company's CEO space.

Speaking to the Financial Times, LEGO Chairman Jorgen Vig Knudstorp explained that Bali Padda has always been meant to be in the role for an interim period due to his age, with Niels Christiansen being a decade younger.

Mr Padda will now take on a special advisory role within the Lego Brand Group, which is headed by Mr Knudstorp.

Christiansen will take over as CEO on October 1.

But while Lego now vies with Barbie doll maker Mattel to be the world's largest maker of toys, revenue growth slowed from 25 per cent in 2015 to just 6 per cent a year ago with sales of 37.9 billion Danish crowns (€5.4 billion).

When Padda took over last December, LEGO said the search would begin immediately for a successor.

Now Padda, a 61-year-old British businessman who was the first non-Dane to lead Lego in its 85-year history, is himself being replaced. In a statement, Vig Knudstorp said the transition to find a new CEO "occurred more rapidly" than anticipated.

And as far as the chairman is concerned, Lego's new boss already has the building blocks he needs to revive growth.

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