On March 1, Niels Frederiksen will take over from Anders Colding Friis as the CEO of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of cigars and pipe tobacco, which employs 9,200 people worldwide.

At 50, Frederiksen has more than 15 years of experience in the tobacco industry and is currently a member of Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s executive board and executive vice president of the company’s global supply chain.

Jørgen Tandrup, the chairman of the board, said that Frederiksen had already made his mark at the company. “Niels Frederiksen has played an instrumental role in building the group we have today,” he said.

Passionate about cigars
“He was strongly involved in creating our present strategy and was anchorman on the merger and integration with Swedish Match. Most recently, Niels Frederiksen launched and completed several major changes in our global supply chain.”

Among his qualifications for the job, Tandrup notes that Frederiksen is personally passionate about cigars and pipe tobacco.

Friis, meanwhile, is leaving to take over as CEO of the jewellery company Pandora.