The chief executive of Royal Greenland, Mikael Thinghuus, is stepping down this summer after 11 years at the helm.
Mr Thinghuus took up the position at the beginning of 2011 at a time when the company was in crisis, both financially and strategically. Since then, the company has undergone a transformation, turning large deficits into solid profits.
“When we hired Mikael almost 12 years ago, I said we had made a scoop,” said company chair, Niels de Coninck-Smith.
“We will miss him very much. The company today is very different from what it was then - much stronger and in much better shape,” he added.
More than half of the activities Royal Greenland operated in 2011 have been divested with the proceeds used to repay the DKK500 million (€67.2 million) debt the company received from its owner, the Greenlandic Government, during the financial crisis of 2010 crisis.
Funds were also used to invest in brand new operations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Chile and Norway as well as significant investments in markets in Asia. Employee satisfaction is reported as being very high and the company now employs almost twice as many people in Greenland as it did ten years ago.
Mr Thinghuus said that his time at Royal Greenland was one of the highlights of his life. “I have to a very high degree enjoyed working in the service of a greater cause, because producing healthy food of the highest quality is so meaningful, because Royal Greenland is so vital to the Greenlandic society and self-government, and because Royal Greenland, both in and outside Greenland, is a leading company in our industry in terms of both biological and social sustainability,” he said.
