Mikael Thinghuus has agreed with the board of directors to step down as Royal Greenland’s CEO this coming summer, eleven years after taking over a company that at the time was in crisis.
‘My time at Royal Greenland has been one of the highlights of my life,’ said Mikael Thinghuus, who turns 60 this year.
‘I have very much enjoyed working on this, partly because producing healthy food of outstanding quality has real meaning, partly because Royal Greenland is so absolutely crucial to Greenlandic society and self-government, and partly because Royal Greenland both in Greenland and elsewhere is a leading company in our industry in terms of both resource and social sustainability.’
In 2010-11, Royal Greenland was struggling in both financial and strategic terms, but under the management of Mikael Thinghuus has been completely turned around, turning substantial deficits into solid profits.
More than half of the activities Royal Greenland was running a decade ago have been disposed of, used to pay off debts and to invest in new ventures in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Chile and Norway. These changes formed the basis of the company’s North Atlantic Champion strategic vision, which has for the last decade been at the core of Royal Greenland’s activities. This has been supported by investments in Asian and North American markets, the result of which is that Royal Greenland is a well-balanced operation in financial, commercial and strategic terms.
‘I have been really happy with the collaboration with my management colleagues and the company’s other staff – and of course the partnership with my chairman throughout all eleven years,’ Mikael Thinghuus added.
‘I am proud of the work we have done and of what we have created. Royal Greenland is today a very robust company that knows where it is going – so I am completely confident of the company’s future.’
The company enters 2022 – despite Covid and a recent cyber attack – in a solidly healthy situation and its 2021 figures show that this has been its best ever year.
The company employs twice as many people as it did ten years ago, and is facing a shortage of labour rather than a shortage of work to be done, while employee satisfaction has increased during 2021 – and it had already been high.
‘When we hired Mikael almost twelve years ago, I said we had pulled off a scoop. Mikael and I have definitely had our business discussions along the way, but I want to stick 100% to my original assessment: He has been a great benefit to Royal Greenland and we will miss him a lot. Today, the company is completely different from what it was then – much stronger and much healthier,’ said Royal Greenland’s chairman Niels de Coninck-Smith.
‘We have just launched a search for a successor. It will probably take a while, but the agreement we have reached with Mikael Thinghuus gives us good flexibility in terms of conducting this search, as he will assist Royal Greenland for a relatively long period to come.’
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