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Baselworld Owner Appoints Interim CEO
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard will run trade show company MCH Group until a permanent replacement is found.
A shot outside the 2018 Baselworld watch and jewelry trade show. The company that owns and operates the show, MCH Group, announced last week that it has appointed an interim CEO to replace René Kamm.
Basel, Switzerland—MCH Group, owner and operator of the Baselworld watch and jewelry trade show, has appointed an interim CEO.
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, a 60-year-old Danish citizen, will run the company until a permanent replacement can be found for René Kamm.
Kamm left the company in early August immediately following Swatch Group’s announcement that it would not exhibit at the watch and jewelry trade show next year.
The exit of Swatch Group, a powerhouse in the Swiss watch industry and Baselworld’s biggest exhibitor, dealt another blow to the already-flailing trade show, which has seen exhibitors pull out and attendance decline in recent years.
MCH said its board of directors appointed Hoejsgaard to the position Sept. 4.
He has more than 30 years of experience in managerial posts in the luxury and consumer goods industry as well as in retail. He has worked for the LVMH Group in Asia, for Georg Jensen Ltd. in Copenhagen and for the Timex Group in Connecticut.
From 2011 to 2017, he was CEO of Swiss cigar brand Oettinger Davidoff AG in Basel, Switzerland. He has been running his own consulting firm since the beginning of the year.
“I am looking forward to working with the board of directors, the management and the employees of the MCH Group to prepare the company for the future in these strategically challenging times,” Hoejsgaard said.
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