Athanase joins the board of Zalaris

Kenth Eriksson, co-founder and partner of Athanase Industrial Partners, has joined the board of Zalaris ASA, after receiving a majority vote at Zalaris’ annual general meeting held in Oslo today. Athanase is currently the second largest owner of Zalaris with 10.4 percent of the outstanding shares, after acquiring an initial position in November 2018.

- We have experience from this industry and look forward to cooperating with Hans-Petter Mellerud, the other owners and the leadership team. Zalaris’ recent drop in profitability is something we regard as temporary. We will support management in their quest to restore profitability and organic growth, and also when looking to acquire attractive business that can strengthen the product offering or the geographical reach, says Eriksson.

Athanase, founded in 2014, is an engaged owner in public equities in which opportunities exists for sustainable value creation. Mr. Eriksson has extensive experience from international business including business process outsourcing (BPO), and private as well as public equity.

After holding various management roles at AB Electrolux, Eriksson co-founded and was the CEO of Tradimus AB, a BPO-company with focus on order to delivery with over 1 billion SEK in turnover. Together with Nordic Capital the company added significant turnover through acquisitions including Personnec, a company similar to Zalaris. Eriksson is presently a member of the board of Addtech AB and chairman of the board of Concentric AB.

Hans-Petter Mellerud, the founder, CEO and largest shareholder of Zalaris with 15.4 percent of the shares, welcomes the new board member.

- Zalaris has seen 18 years of uninterrupted revenue growth since its inception in 2000, and I’m happy that Athanase has identified the company as an attractive investment. Athanase has a strong track record of value creation through active ownership, and relevant experience from BPO and other industries. I look forward to working with them, says Mellerud.

Local knowledge
Another new addition to the Zalaris-board is Corinna Schäfer, who has extensive business experience from Germany representing sales to large customers, BPO and software competence. Ms. Schäfer has 20 years of experience from digital business in companies like wallmedien, meplato and WPS Management as CEO. As a German citizen, she brings valuable local knowledge and experience of the largest single market for Zalaris both in terms of revenue and number of employees, following the acquisition of the German HR outsourcing and consulting company sumarum AG in 2017.

- We look forward to gain access to these new resources in the board room and continue our journey of developing Zalaris into the leading European provider of outsourcing and consulting services. Our mission is to maximize the value of human capital through efficient digital processes, says Mellerud.

Following re-elections of all existing board members at today’s AGM, the Zalaris board now consists of Lars Henriksen (chair), Liselotte Hägertz Engstam, Jan M. Koivurinta, Adele Bugge Norman Pran, Jon Erik Haug, Corinna Schäfer and Kenth Eriksson.

For further information, please contact:
Hans-Petter Mellerud, Zalaris CEO
Tel: +47 92 89 72 76
hans-petter.mellerud@zalaris.com

About Zalaris
ASA Zalaris’ mission is to help our clients maximize the value of their human capital through excellence in HR processes. Our outsourced payroll, HR and consulting services are delivered out of local language service centres in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Germany, UK, Ireland and India. Zalaris’ services utilize web and mobile based cloud solutions powered by SAP and SuccessFactors. We are a certified SAP Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Partner. For more information about Zalaris, visit our website at www.zalaris.com.

About Athanase Industrial Partners
Athanase Industrial Partners (“Athanase”) is an engaged owner in public companies in which opportunities exists for sustainable value creation through structural, operational, financial and growth initiatives. Athanase works with shareholders and management to creatively develop, rethink, challenge and improve existing concepts, industries and structures. We focus on industrial logic and operational excellence. Athanase was founded in 2014 by Stefan Charette and former colleagues of a group of public investment companies. Prior to being the CEO of these companies, Stefan Charette was the CEO of an international industrial conglomerate. The team has worked together since 2006, been an engaged owner in 31 public companies and has on average more than 20 years of experience. For more information, please visit https://www.athanase.se/.