Swedish banking group, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, said on Monday that Carina Akerstrom has been named its Chief Executive.
Akerstrom said that she would take up her post at the end of March. The 56-year-old succeeds Anders Bouvin, who is retiring.
She becomes the first female chief executive since Handelsbanken’s founding in 1871.
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Akerstrom has been with the bank, one of the four major banking groups in Sweden, for over 30 years.
She started in 1986 at a local branch and has been deputy chief executive since 2008.
In a statement, she underlined the group’s decentralised organisation and the role local branches play in its business model.
The announcement means that two of the four major banking groups in the Scandinavian country will have female chief executives.
Birgitte Bonnesen has headed Swedbank since 2016.
In 2017, Annika Falkengren left rival banking group SEB after 11 years at the helm.
During that period Falkengren was designated as one of the most influential female business leaders in the country.
Handelsbanken has about 12,000 employees and a large presence in Sweden, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. (NAN)
