I build an operating model and see it through. Until it actually works, it is just a hypothesis. At Maersk I changed customer service so the business could go digital, then led the digital strategy across Maersk Line. Since then I have worked with smaller software businesses in logistics and agriculture as chairman, investor and interim CEO. I am open to a full-time operating role.
I work through my own company, e‑thomsen ApS. The writing here is what that has taught me, written as general rules. None of the pieces is about a company I currently sit in.
A.P. Møller-Maersk, 1994 to 2017. The first fifteen years were international roles in strategy, HR, IT, e-commerce and operations, in Denmark, Russia, Senegal and South Africa. In 2009 I took over global customer service, around 6,000 people in 120 countries, and changed it so the business could go digital. Transactional work moved into service centres, the foundation for taking 99% of transactional volume online. Cost to serve fell by 60% and head-office headcount by more than 40%. Sales was added in 2012, which made the scope around 10,000 people and about USD 25bn in revenue, and for four months I was interim chief commercial officer. From 2014 I headed Simplification, the digital strategy across Maersk Line, a programme worth about USD 300m. In those years I also sat on the board of INTTRA, before its sale to E2open.
After Maersk, independent work through e‑thomsen ApS. Chairman of Kontainers from 2018 to 2020 and through its sale to Descartes. Board roles at Arviem (Switzerland) and World Liner Data. Interim CEO in two B2B software companies. Due diligence and operating engagements for industrials, carriers, private-equity sponsors and public institutions, some of it as an external advisor to Bain & Company, and some of it outside logistics, in agriculture and the public sector.
From 2024 to 2026 Senior Client Partner and Head of Advisory, Denmark, at Korn Ferry, responsible for how the advisory unit was run and delivered.
Chairman of IQinAbox (Denmark), decision software for livestock production, since 2026 after earlier years as advisor, interim CEO and board member. Chairman of Youredi / Coneksion (Finland), supply-chain integration. Board member of Ship Angel (US), logistics software for shippers. Advisor and early investor in NetFeasa (Ireland).
They have one thing in common. Each is a small company whose customers are many times its size and set the pace. Most of the board work is about how a company that size gets a hearing with counterparties it cannot hurry, and what the commercial model has to look like for that to happen.