Karl-Johan Persson, born in 1975, has been the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB since 1 July 2009. Before taking over as Managing Director Karl-Johan Persson held an operational role within H&M from 2005, including working as head of expansion, business development, brand and new business. Since 2000 Karl-Johan Persson has been a member of the boards of H&M’s subsidiaries in Denmark, Germany, the US and the UK. Between the years 2006 and 2009 he was also a member of the Board of H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB. Between 2001 and 2004 Karl-Johan Persson was CEO of European Network. Karl-Johan holds a BA in Business Administration from the European Business School in London. His current external board assignments are the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in the UK and the GoodCause foundation. Karl-Johan Persson is since 2013 a member of the Board of H&M Conscious Foundation. Karl-Johan Persson is a shareholder in Ramsbury Invest AB, and also personally holds 12,136,289 class B shares in H&M. The Managing Director is appointed by the Board of Directors and is responsible for the daily management of the company as directed by the Board. This means that the Managing Director must focus in particular on recruitment of senior executives, buying and logistics matters, pricing strategy, sales and profitability, marketing, expansion, development of the store network and of online and catalogue sales, and IT development. The Managing Director reports to the Board on H&M’s development and produces decision bases for investments, expansion, etc. The role of Managing Director includes contact with the financial market, the media and the authorities.