The Nomination Committee´s proposal for Board of Directors to the Annual General Meeting 2018
The Nomination Committee of Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige Holdings II AB (publ) (“IES”) submits the following proposals with regard to the number and election of Members of the Board of Directors, to be presented at the Annual General Meeting 20 November 2018.
The Nomination Committee proposes seven (six) members of the Board of Directors and no deputy members.
The Nomination Committee proposes re-election of the following members of the Board: Birker B. Bahnsen, Cecilia Marlow, Maria Rankka and Gunilla Carlsson, and the election of Brian Hatch, Peter Wikström and Lars Strannegård as new Board members. The Nomination Committee proposes the election of Birker B. Bahnsen as Chairman of the Board. Per Båtelson and Barbara Bergström has declined re-election.
Brian Hatch, born in 1981 and an Irish citizen, is a partner and Head of Research at Paradigm Capital AG, an investment advisor with a strong focus on small- and mid-cap companies in the Nordics. Brian earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, New York, and BA from Trinity College, Dublin. He previously worked at JP Morgan Chase in New York where he was a Vice President and prior to this he worked at Citigroup in London and New York.
Peter Wikström, born in 1975 and a Swedish citizen, is the Head of M&A at A.P. Moller-Maersk since 2016. He previously worked for many years at SEB with financing and M&A and in 2012 he headed the SEB team which supported Barbara Bergström during the process of selling part of IES to TA Associates. During 2013-2015 Peter lived and worked in China, executing M&A transactions for the Chinese investment bank China International Capital Corporation. Peter Wikström holds a Master’s degree in International Business Administration from Lund University.
Lars Strannegård, born in 1969 and a Swedish citizen, is president of the Stockholm School of Economics, a position he has held since 2014, after two years as vice chancellor. Since 2010, he holds the Bo Rydin and SCA Chair in Business Administration, with an emphasis on leadership. Between 2006-2009 Lars was a professor at Uppsala University. He earned his doctorate at the University of Gothenburg in 1998, with the dissertation Green Ideas in Business. Lars Strannegård also has broad cultural interests and is, among other things, a board member of the Swedish Film Institute.
All the proposed new Board Members are considered independent in relation to the company and management. Peter Wikström and Lars Strannegård are also independent to major shareholders of IES.
The Nomination Committee 2017/18 members have been:
- Birker B. Bahnsen, chairman of the nomination committee and elected by Bock Senior Capital Investors S.à.r.l.
- Hans Bergström, elected by Greenbush Förvaltnings AB
- Jan Hummel, elected by Paradigm Capital Value Fund SICAV
- Per Båtelson, chairman of the board of directors
Information about the proposed Members of the Board of Directors of IES as well as the Nomination Committee’s complete proposal and motivated opinion regarding the proposed Board of Directors can be found on IES’s website, http://corporate.engelska.se/.
For more information, please contact:
Johan Hähnel, IES’s IR Manager
Tel: +46 (0)70 605 6334
e-mail: johan.hahnel@engelska.se
The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the above contact, at 15:01 p.m. CEST on 19 October 2018.
About IES
Internationella Engelska Skolan, IES, is one of the leading free school operators in Sweden with some 25,600 students at 36 schools at the beginning of the academic year 2018/19 and 1,800 students in our fully owned schools in Spain. IES operates schools for students in grades F-12. Its main focus is grades 4-9, what is often called “middle school.” Within the compulsory school system in Sweden, IES is the leading independent operator, with nine of the ten largest free schools. IES’s results on the national tests in grade 9 are far above average in Sweden. Internationella Engelska Skolan was founded in 1993 and is in its 26th year of operation. Throughout this period, its schools have been defined by the three core convictions of its founder, Mrs. Barbara Bergström:
- A safe and orderly school environment, where teachers can teach and students learn.
- Commanding the English language—the key to the world.
- High academic expectations and ambitions.
Up to half of the teaching in IES schools is in English, by native English speaking teachers. Over 700 teachers with qualified foreign teaching degrees are currently teaching in IES schools. They are mainly recruited from Canada, USA, UK and South Africa.
IES’s student base is in high growth. Over the past ten years, total operating income has increased organically by an average of 19% per year. In the most recent financial year 2017/18, which concluded on 30 June 2018 total operating income was MSEK 2,347.9, an increase of some 15% year on year. As of 30 June 2018, there were approximately 190,000 applications in the waiting list to secure a place for the current and forthcoming years.
Internationella Engelska Skolan has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap, with the ticker ENG, since the end of September 2016. The largest (indirect) shareholders of IES are TA Associates of the US, which has close affiliations to leading universities and foundations in the US, and IES’s founder Barbara Bergström. At the end of June 2018, the largest shareholders also included Paradigm Capital, investment company Öresund, Swedbank Robur fonder, the Third Swedish National Pension Fund, SEB fonder and AMF Försäkring & Fonder (owned jointly by LO, The Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise).
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