The Swedish government has appointed the successor to Anitra Steen, CEO of Systembolaget AB, the Swedish alcohol retail monopoly. The future CEO is Magdalena Gerger, currently Vice President at Arla Foods with a career history including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Diageo, Tampax. According to some press info she has also during a part of her career been responsible for a whisky product range. Before joining her present employer, Arla, she ran her own management consulting company about which we have not found much information (apart from the curious fact that the company some time ago advertised for a part time child care person). Gerger also has some previous experience from operating a monopoly since she was member of the board of Svenska Spel (Swedish Gambling) ’04-’06 which is also a government run monopoly. It is definitely a big step forward to appoint someone who has experience of running a business and not solely selected on political party membership and creed (the retiring CEO is married to the ex-Prime Minister of Sweden). Perhaps it is surprising that they did not choose someone with more retailing experience though. It will be interesting to see what happens.
