Norwegian new CEO of Sweden's Vattenfall
Norwegian Øystein Løseth will succeed Lars G. Josefsson as new chief executive officer of troubled Swedish stated-owned power company Vattenfall.
[Lars G. Josefsson and Øystein Løseth]
| Related news: • Vattenfall's criticized CEO to step down |
"We are pleased to have found in Øystein Løseth an internal candidate who in the best of ways meets our needs," Lars Westerberg, the chairman of Vattenfall's board, said in a statement.
Vattenfall appointed Løseth deputy chief executive at a board meeting on Sunday, the group said, adding he would work with current chief Lars Josefsson until his retirement in the summer of 2010.
Løseth, a 51-year-old Norwegian, is currently the chief executive of Dutch power company Nuon Energy, in which the Swedish energy giant holds a 49-percent stake.
Josefsson is due to retire when he turns 60 in 2010, but has come under increasingly heavy fire in the Swedish media in recent few weeks.
The controversy around his management of the state-owned power giant was such that Swedish Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson said on Friday that she hoped for the early appointment of a new chief.
"I hope there will be an announcement about a new CEO as soon as possible," she said.
A Vattenfall spokesman told AFP last week that the company would name Josefsson's replacement "in due time," and insisted the appointment had nothing to do with the controversy around Josefsson.
"There is no connection between what is happening now and the process to find a new CEO because it has been going on for a long time," spokesman Mark Vadasz said.
The company said: "Øystein Løseth will work in parallel with Lars G. Josefsson for a period of time to familiarise himself with the entire Vattenfall operation. When this introduction is completed, prior to the summer of 2010, Oeystein Loeseth will take the reins as CEO."
Løseth has worked at Nuon Energy since 2003 and served as its CEO since 2008.
He was previously a manager state-owned Norwegian energy company Statkraft, and has worked for Naturkraft, Alliance Gas and Statoil.
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Last Updated (Monday, 16 November 2009 11:35)
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