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Bloomberg
Securitas AB is replacing its chief executive officer with an insider who’s almost two decades his junior to steer Sweden’s biggest security company through a paradigm shift from manned guarding to big data and artificial intelligence.
Magnus Ahlqvist will take over as CEO in March next year after Alf Goransson asked to step down after more than a decade in the job, the Stockholm-based company said.
Ahlqvist, who joined Securitas in 2015 following a career at Sony Ericsson, Sony Mobile and Motorola Mobility, is currently president of Securitas’s largest business segment, Security Services Europe.
As the company continues to boost sales of security services based on software and technological equipment such as network cameras “we also need to have a longer perspective, and start thinking beyond 2020, maybe toward 2025,†Ahlqvist said in an interview at Securitas’ headquarters. “We need to use the opportunities in digitalisation and information.â€
Ahlqvist will be supported by his predecessor for two years after he assumes the top position at the company, which has almost 300,000 employees worldwide. The new CEO will focus on improving the efficiency of Securitas’ traditional manned-guarding business by introducing more technology.