Hans Stråberg President & CEO of AB Electrolux

Hans Stråberg has served as President and CEO of AB Electrolux since April 2002. His priorities are clear: Product development based on consumer insight, establishing Electrolux as a truly global brand, cost efficiency, and talent management.

Stråberg knows that product innovation is a key to profitable growth as consumers have demonstrated their willingness to spend more for products that meet their needs and preferences. He has committed to increase investment in product development from one percent to about two percent of sales over the coming years. In 2006, Electrolux had increased investments in product development to 1.8 percent of sales.

Product development based on consumer insight is his passion. During his time as CEO and head of the floor-care sector, his team developed Electrolux Trilobite®, the world’s first automatic vacuum cleaner. Today, under his Group leadership, a rigorous product creation process ensures greater precision, shorter lead times and shorter product cycles.

One of the first goals Stråberg announced when he became CEO was to establish Electrolux as a truly global brand. Specifically, he set a goal that two-thirds of the Group’s products are to be sold under the Electrolux name by 2007. One important step in this area was the appointment of a single global advertising agency that handles brand-building activities. Now, the number of products being branded or double-branded is almost 50% percent, compared with 20 percent in 2002. Almost 75 percent of the company’s marketing budget is spent on building the Electrolux brand.

Hans Stråberg is the architect of a major restructuring program. In 2004, he announced the closure of seven factories, with about half of the remaining 27 factories in high cost countries at risk to be closed or relocated by the end of 2008. In February, 2005, he announced the spin-off of the company’s highly profitable outdoor business which was completed by mid-2006.

Stråberg, who joined Electrolux in 1983, worked in various staff roles until 1987, when he took on his first senior management role; global responsibility for dishwashers and laundry equipment.

In 1992, Stråberg became general manager of the Electrolux floor-care operations at Västervik, Sweden, before moving to the U.S. in 1995, where he assumed responsibility for production and development in the Group’s North American white goods operations. Stråberg and his team in North America introduced a front-loading washing machine to the U.S. market, and today the company has a significant market share with this product.

In 1998, he became executive vice president and head of the Group’s Floor-Care and Light Appliances sector, and also a member of the Group management team.

Prior to his Electrolux years, Stråberg worked at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C as an assistant to the technical attaché.

Stråberg was born in 1957 in Sweden. He holds a master’s degree in science and engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. Stråberg is married. He and his wife have two children.