Promoteq has appointed Mathias Krümmel as its new CEO and Group President. He brings a military officer background and extensive experience in senior leadership roles, and joins the company at a time of increasing demands for robustness and regulatory compliance.
What is your background?
I have worked in senior leadership roles for more than two decades, primarily in environments where delivery, quality, and execution are absolutely critical. I come most recently from the role of CEO of DHL Freight Sweden AB and have previously served as CEO of PostNord Sweden AB. I also have a military officer background, which has shaped my approach to leadership: clear accountability, structured execution, and the ability to make decisions even when not everything is certain.
The most concrete lesson I bring from that experience is that delivery and culture are interconnected. You can have processes and systems in place, but if people do not understand the why, and follow-up is unclear, you will still end up with rework and lost quality. I carry with me the importance of having a few clear priorities, consistent follow-up, and catching deviations early — that is how you build predictability for both customers and employees.
Why did you choose to work in the defence sector?
The security landscape has changed, and that has made supply capability, robustness, and delivery reliability into strategic issues. For me, it is about responsibility and contributing where it makes a real difference. At the same time, I see an industry that is professionalising rapidly, with growing demands for regulatory compliance, traceability, and quality. These are areas where I have experience building structure and execution capability.
What attracted you to the position at Promoteq?
I was drawn to the combination of a strong foundation and a clear opportunity to take the next step. I saw high levels of competence, a strong drive to deliver, and a market where the need for robustness and structure will continue to grow. Promoteq operates in an environment where trust, delivery, and quality are paramount, and where requirements keep increasing. I also see a clear ambition to grow in a controlled manner and to build capacity that holds up over time.
What pleasantly surprised me was how much expertise and sense of responsibility already exists within the organisation, even as the company has grown rapidly and now needs greater consistency in governance and ways of working. I thrive when the mission is sharp, the direction is clear, and improvements can be felt in day-to-day operations.
What does your new role entail?
It is about leading the whole. Creating clear priorities, building a governance structure that enables the organisation to deliver consistently while also developing, and ensuring that structures and ways of working hold up as complexity increases. It also involves developing collaboration with customers and partners, and building competence and capacity for the next phase. My starting point is simple: professional execution beats ambition on paper.
What is at the top of your agenda for the next six months?
I want to start by listening and genuinely understanding the business. I typically begin by spending a great deal of time out in the operations, asking three questions: what is working, what is causing friction, and what would make the biggest difference over the next six months.
The first half-year is about three things. Stable delivery and clarity in day-to-day operations — when you grow, it must not come at the expense of quality or predictability. Ways of working and follow-up that make us faster and more consistent: fewer instances of rework, clearer priorities, and more consistent execution. And capacity and competence for the next phase — we need to build a team and an organisation that can handle a higher level of demands over time, both operationally and commercially.
The commitment and willingness to make things work even when the pace is high is something that is already clearly evident in a positive way. What I have noted as a challenge is that rapid growth always creates friction — more parallel initiatives, more dependencies, and a greater need for clarity. My experience is that this can be resolved through structure without losing momentum.
What I am personally most engaged by is making everyday operations simpler and more predictable: fewer instances of rework, clearer decisions, clearer accountability, and a follow-up culture that helps rather than burdens. The goal is for this to be felt through clearer priorities, shorter decision-making paths, and more consistent follow-up. That creates confidence internally and trust externally.
NDS (Nordic Defence Sector) has previously interviewed, among others, Tobias Billström and Karin Swanson in this series. If you know someone who would be suitable for this interview series, or feel that you yourself would be a good fit, NDS can be reached at news@nordicdefencesector.com — please mark the email "New on the Job".