On top of a media crisis about the partnership with Saudi Neom and his own resignation, DSV chief executive Jens Bjørn Andersen points to the lack of diversity in the top management as one of his biggest mistakes. 

”In many ways, I think we have a very diverse organization with many different nationalities. So it is true that in top management there are no women and only Danes. And you could say that this is a point, when I reflect back on my career as a CEO, where I have failed,” says Andersen to Finans in connection with Danish organization Lederne [Leaders] naming him leader of the year.

However, he adds that he has always refused to move an employee or replace a manager so that someone else could take their place.

The news that Jens Bjørn Andersen has left DSV was announced back in October. In his place, Jens Lund will take over the position before the calendar turns to September 2024.

Andersen told Danish business daily Børsen at the end of October that the decision had been made on the board’s initiative.

”It will certainly not be easy for me to leave a company that has been of great importance to my life for more than three decades. However, I respect the Board’s decision to implement the plan to appoint a successor and appoint Jens Lund as the group’s next CEO,” he said.

The news of the change of chair on the executive board at DSV came almost simultaneously with the announcement that DSV has entered into a partnership with Saudi Neom on a new billion-dollar project to build a large ’city of the future’.

The partnership has been met with much criticism from, among others, some of DSV’s investors, who believe that the collaboration is risky for DSV, as Neom has been accused by the UN of violating human rights.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Katrine Gøthler)