Katarina Lindström will join Hempel as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer from 1 August 2020 and will play a central role in delivering on the company’s ambition to double in size.
As Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer(COO), Katarina Lindström will be a key member of Hempel’s Executive Management Board, responsible for driving the company’s strategic agenda in terms of operational excellence, innovation and sustainability.
“I’m extremely pleased to welcome someone of Katarina’s calibre to our global team,” says Lars Petersson, Group President and CEO of Hempel. “We’re an ambitious company on a strong growth curve. Our target is to double Hempel in five years, and we remain on track. We want to lead the industry in market-driven innovation, sustainability and customer focus. As Chief Operating Officer, Katarina will play a significant part in this, and I’m very much looking forward to working with her.”
As part of its long-term growth strategy, Hempel is making significant investments in innovation and sustainability, while strengthening its supply chain and manufacturing footprint, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Katarina will be responsible for driving many of these initiatives.
She has extensive international business, leadership and manufacturing experience from her time at Volvo Group, where she worked for more than 20 years. In that time, she held a series of global senior executive positions within both operations and product management. As architect of Volvo Group’s industrial presence in Asia, she has proven experience of building a company’s manufacturing footprint in the region.
In 2018, Katarina became President of Operations at Munters Group AB, a global leader in energy efficient and sustainable air treatment solutions, where she drove a number of important strategic initiatives and improvement projects.
Katarina comments: “Hempel is a company with strong values and an ambitious growth strategy.  It’s investing in customer solutions, innovation and employee development and it has a desire to lead sustainability in the coatings industry. I’m very excited to be part of this journey.”