Global Wind Service (GWS) announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Michael Høj Olsen as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), taking over from Co-founder Lars Petersen who will continue with GWS in the role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) with responsibility for sales and business development. Both appoint-ments are effective from today. 

Commenting on the appointments, GWS Chairman Richard Olav Aa said: "GWS has built a strong market po-sition in a fast-growing industry and is now ready to take the next step. The board & Lars has for a time dis-cussed how to organize the leadership going forward and after completing a thorough due diligence pro-cess to select the strongest candidate, the Board is pleased to appoint Michael as CEO to lead GWS on its next phase of growth." 

Co-founder Lars Petersen said: "GWS is in excellent shape and I am delighted to pass the CEO role to Michael to take us forward to the next level. Since it was founded in 2008, GWS has grown into a leading installation and service provider with offices in ten countries, over 1,000 employees and revenue of more than 100 mil-lion euros. Over the last two years we have strengthened our leadership and management teams and in-vested heavily in our employees to meet future market requirements and higher standards for safety, quality and technical expertise." 

"Michael joined GWS in 2014 as Chief Commercial Officer and has played a key role in accelerating our growth and strengthening our commercial setup and customer relationships. Stepping away from the CEO role is a decision that I haven't taken lightly but the time is now right for me to hand over to Michael. At heart, I'm an entrepreneur and GWS needs a new and different set of competencies to take us further on our journey. I remain fully committed to GWS and have great ambitions on behalf of the company. I look for-ward to developing our commercial business and the close partnership approach we have with all our loyal customers," Petersen continued. 

New CEO Michael Olsen said: "I am very excited about the opportunity to drive the continued growth and development of GWS, together with all our dedicated colleagues. GWS is a unique company in the wind in-dustry and we take pride in our strong corporate DNA. Our ambition to be the preferred global partner for complete wind turbine services remains the same, and we will continue to build on our strengths, always striving to deliver the highest safety and quality standards to our customers across the wind industry." 

Prior to joining GWS as Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Høj Olsen spent over four years at Vestas where he held roles in marketing. He holds a Cand. Merc. in Marketing, Strategy and Business administration from Aar-hus University.

Global Wind Service | www.globalwindservice.com