For the Annual General Meeting 2022, re-election of Board members Johan Lundberg, Eva Leach, Pontus Lindwall and Peter Hamberg and new election of Eva de Falck, Louise Nylén and Tristan Sjöberg is proposed. Fredrik Carlsson has declined re-election. Johan Lundberg is proposed to be elected Chairman of the Board.
Active ownership responsibility via board position
There is a positive view in both Swedish society and among institutional investors that major shareholders are to take special responsibility by actively participating in the management of listed companies through a position on the Board of Directors. The Nomination Committee of Betsson wants to see active ownership responsibility and has assessed that it would benefit the company to have active owners via a board position. The Nomination Committee therefore proposes re-election of Peter Hamberg and Pontus Lindwall as well as new election of Tristan Sjöberg. Tristan has more than 25 years of international experience in the gaming industry, both offline via Knutsson Casino, the TCS JohnHuxley Group, where he currently is Vice Chairman and IGO Ltd, and online with Sponsio Ltd (Ladbrokes). Tristan holds an M.B.A. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia.
CEO as a board member
The Nomination Committee has assessed that it benefits Betsson that Pontus Lindwall, CEO, founder and shareholder in the company, also serves as a board member and therefore proposes re-election of Pontus Lindwall. According to the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance, a maximum of one board member elected at the Annual General Meeting may be engaged in the company’s management or in the management of its subsidiaries. This position is most often occupied by the CEO. The Nomination Committee views it as particularly important that Pontus’ extensive experience and unique knowledge of Betsson and its operations, as well as the global gaming market, be ensured on the Board.
New independent Board members
The Nomination Committee proposes the election of Eva de Falck and Louise Nylén to the Board. Eva de Falck has a long and solid career, among other things having served as General Counsel and member of Group Management for Swedbank and several senior positions within Handelsbanken. She is currently a senior consultant, advisor and board member of Skandiabanken, where she is chairman of the board’s risk and audit committee. She is also chairman of the board of Tessin Nordic Holding AB (publ.) and a board member of Contemporary Wines. She has previous board experience from, among others, several savings banks and holds a law degree from Stockholm University.
Louise Nylén has an international career and is currently CEO of Dynamic Code. She has previously held leading positions, e.g. as Chief Marketing Officer at Trustly and Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at LeoVegas. Louise has previous board experience from Nelly.com. She has a master’s degree in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Composition and independence of the Board
The Nomination Committee proposes that the Board consists of seven members, of which four of the members, including the Chairman of the Board, are independent in relation to the company’s management and major owners. The proposal implicates a gender distribution with three of the board’s total of seven members being women.
The Nomination Committee’s motivated statement, together with the Nomination Committee’s other proposals, will be published prior to the Annual General Meeting which will be held on May 10, 2022.
