Board & Management

Board of directors

Kicki Wallje-Lund

Born: 1953 Chairman of the board, elected 2016
Member of the board’s audit committee and remuneration committee.

Education/background: Kicki Wallje-Lund has experience in business development from a variety of international companies, especially in the IT sector. She has held leading global positions in companies like NCR, Digital Equipment, AT & T, Philips, ICL and Unisys.

Current assignments: Board member and of C-Rad AB (publ).

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Kicki Wallje-Lund holds 50,600 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Independent in relation to major shareholders, independent in relation to the company and management.

Lars Wingefors

Born: 1977 Founder of Embracer Group. Board member (elected 2011) and CEO

Education/background: Lars Wingefors is founder and CEO of Embracer Group. Lars Wingefors started his first video games company at the age of sixteen. He has a broad and long experience in entrepreneurship and business management.

Current relevant assignments: Lars Wingefors is a board member and CEO of Lars Wingefors AB.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Lars Wingefors holds, through companies, 52,260,204 class A shares and 210,238,330 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Dependent in relation to major shareholders, dependent in relation to the company and management.

Erik Stenberg

Born: 1963 Board Member, elected 2011

Education/background: Erik Stenberg has a Degree of Master of Science in Business and Economics from Högskolan Karlstad (today Karlstad University) and a long and solid experience in business management.

Current relevant assignments: Erik Stenberg is a Board member of Xagonus Zagonus AB and Stonemountain Invest AB.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Erik Stenberg holds 9,000,000 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Dependent in relation to major shareholders, dependent in relation to the company and management.

Jacob Jonmyren

Born: 1980 Board member, elected 2018
Member of the board’s audit committee.

Education/background: Jacob Jonmyren holds a M.Sc in Accounting and Financial Management from Stockholm School of Economics and has studied Finance at University of Wisconsin – Madison and Media & Communication Studies (Master level) at Stockholm University, where he was president of the Student Association at the Depart- ment of Journalism, Media & Communication. Jacob Jonmyren has long experience from the financial markets. He has been invested in the stock market since the age of nine and has for the last thirteen years been employed at RAM Rational Asset Management, a Swedish, independent asset management company with focus on absolute return.

Current assignments: Jacob Jonmyren is Partner, Portfolio Manager and Head of Research at RAM ONE AB and member of the Board at Jacob Jonmyren Kapital AB and World Market Coverage i Stockholm AB.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Jacob Jonmyren holds 42,000 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Independent in relation to major shareholders, independent in relation to the company and management.

Ulf Hjalmarsson

Born: 1956 Board member, elected 2018
Member of the board’s audit committee and remuneration committee. Chair of the audit committee.

Education/background: Ulf Hjalmarsson holds a M.Sc in Accounting and Financial Management from Lund’s University and has served
as an officer in the Swedish armed forces. Ulf Hjalmarsson has long experience from the financial markets. He has amongst other things been the head of corporate finance Sweden at Aros Securities AB.
He has also been a financial analyst and portfolio manager and head of corporate finance at AB Investor/Förvaltnings AB Providentia. Ulf is also the founder of Hjalmarsson & Partners Corporate Finance AB.

Current assignments: Chairman of the Board in Hjalmarsson & Partners Corporate Finance AB, director of the Board Connecting Capital Holding AB and Stiftelsen Kungafonden.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Ulf Hjalmarsson has holds 2,500 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Independent in relation to major shareholders, independent in relation to the company and management.

David Gardner

Born: 1965 Board member, elected 2020
Member of the board’s remuneration committee. Chair of the remuneration committee.

Education/background: David Gardner has a solid industry background and experience. He met Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins in 1982, and in 1983 David became part of the founding team behind EA. He went on to establish EA‘s European Business Unit in 1986 and lead it as it grew to USD 1 billion in gross revenue and 1,200 employees. David became part of EA’s global management team based in California from 2004 to 2007 when he then returned to Europe to live there with his family. David became CEO of Atari S.A. where the turnaround goal was marked by the successful sale of Atari’s distribution companies, the privatization of the US unit and the acquisition of Cryptic Studios.

Current assignments: co-founder and general partner of London Venture Partners LLP, a VC-company founded in 2010.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: David Gardner has no holding of shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Independent in relation to major shareholders, independent in relation to the company and management.

Matthew Karch

Born: 1971 CEO and Co-founder of Saber Interactive and Board member, elected 2020

Education/Background: Matthew has a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University and a Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania. He has extensive experience in game design and development, business and legal affairs and is fluent in Russian.

Current assignments: Matthew Karch is the founder and CEO of Saber Interactive a game development company in the Embracer Group with studios in multiple locations across the globe. Matthew started the company in 2001 after a brief career as an attorney.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Matthew Karch owns 57,5% of S3D Media which in turn holds 12 798 274 class A shares and 70 772 440 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ). Matthew Karch also holds 1 070 000 B shares directly.

Position of dependency: Dependent in relation to major shareholders, dependent in relation to the company and management.

Senior ExecutivesParent Company

Lars Wingefors

Born: 1977 Founder of Embracer Group. Board member (elected 2011) and CEO

Current relevant assignments: Lars Wingefors is a board member and CEO of Lars Wingefors AB.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Lars Wingefors holds, through companies, 52,260,204 class A shares and 210,238,330 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Position of dependency: Dependent in relation to major shareholders, dependent in relation to the company and management.

Johan Ekström

Born: 1977 CFO and Deputy CEO, employed since 2019

Education/background: Johan Ekström holds a M.Sc in business administration from Stockholm School of Economics. He has an extensive background in accounting, reporting and financial control from previous positions at Crem International, Permobil and PwC.

Current assignments: Johan Ekström has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Johan Ekström holds 73,370 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Ian Gulam

Born: 1982 Chief of Staff, Legal & Governance, employed since 2021

Education/background: Ian holds a Master of Laws from Uppsala University. Ian was previously General Counsel of Embracer Group. Ian Gulam has extensive knowledge of corporate and capital markets law as well as governance topics and before joining Embracer Group he worked as a corporate and capital markets lawyer at Baker McKenzie.

Current relevant assignments: Ian Gulam has no other relevant assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Ian Gulam holds 19,036 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Chief Executive OfficersOperative Groups

Klemens Kreuzer

Born: 1976 CEO, THQ Nordic GmbH, employed 2011

Education/background: Klemens Kreuzer has a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He also has experience from business management.

Current assignments: Klemens Kreuzer has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Klemens Kreuzer holds, through companies, 1,118,104 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Klemens Kundratitz

Born: 1962 CEO, Plaion, employed 1994

Education/background: Klemens Kundratitz holds a Doctor of Law degree from Leopold-Franzen- University in Innsbruck and has a strong track record within the gaming and entertainment industry. He is among other things co-founder of Plaion (formerly Koch Media) and has developed the company and as its Managing Director and CEO. Klemens Kundratitz is also the founder of Deep Silver, the games publishing label of Plaion (formerly Koch Media).

Current assignments: Klemens Kundratitz has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Koch Media Holding GmbH holds 2,255,856 class B shares in Embracer Group (publ). Koch Media Holding GmbH (previously Parent Company in the Koch Media Group) is partly owned by Klemens Kundratitz, co-founder and CEO of the Koch Media Group.

Anton Westbergh

Born: 1985 CEO, Coffee Stain, employed 2013

Education/background: Anton Westbergh studied computer science at the University of Skövde, and have extensive experience in game and business development.

Current assignments: Anton Westbergh has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Anton Westbergh holds, through companies 2,412,666 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Per-Arne Lundberg

Born: 1970 CEO Amplifier Game Invest AB, employed since 2018

Education/Background: Per-Arne has 16 years of experience in the Games Industry. As head of The Game Incubator, he participated in and developed over 80 game companies, amongst others Coffee Stain Studios, Pieces Interactive, ACE and Flamebait Games.

He has a broad experience in business development, financing, and goto-market strategies for startups and scaleups, in both Sweden and Silicon Valley, where he held a one-year Fellowship from VINNOVA at Nordic Innovation House during 2017.

Current assignments: Member of the Board, Forsway Scandinavia.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Per-Arne Lundberg holds 33,694 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Matthew Karch

Born: 1971 CEO and Co-founder of Saber Interactive

Ken Go

Born: 1980 CEO, DECA Games

Education/Background: Ken has a bachelors degree from The George Washington University. Ken is the CEO and founder of DECA games. He has spent over 14 years in the gaming industry focused on games as a service of free to play games including positions as the executive producer of the game Kingdoms of Camelot and the european general manager of Kabam.

Current assignments: Ken has no other current assignments

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Ken holds 11,803,182 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ)

Randy Pitchford

Born: 1971 Founder of the Gearbox Entertainment Company

Background: Randy Pitchford is a video game industry veteran of more than 30 years and founder of the Gearbox Entertainment Company, which develops and publishes award-winning and best-selling video games through its subsidiaries, Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing, and produces groundbreaking film and television content.

Current assignments: Randy Pitchford has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Randy Pitchford holds 9,563,028 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ)

Oleg Grushevich

Born: 1984 CEO, Easybrain, employed 2016

Education/background: Oleg Grushevich studied accounting in foreign activities at Belarusian State Economic University and holds FCCA as a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Before joining the gaming industry Oleg worked in different roles and locations at EY.

Current assignments: Oleg Grushevich has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Oleg Grushevich holds, through company, 10,066,554 class B shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Stéphane Carville

Born: 1968 CEO of Asmodee Group

Education/background: Stéphane holds a Post Graduate degree in Finance & Marketing from Paris Dauphine University. He joined Asmodee in 2009 and has been Chief Executive Officer of Asmodee Group since 2012. He has over 12 years of experience in the Games Industry. Prior to his current position, he held senior leadership roles in finance & business development within corporate groups and start-ups.

Current assignments: Stéphane Carville has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Stéphane Carville has no holding of shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

Mike Richardson

Born: 1950 CEO, Dark Horse Media

Education/Background: Mike Richardson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Portland State University. In 1980, he founded Pegasus Fantasy Books, which later became the Things From Another World retail chain. In 1986 he founded Dark Horse Comics, an award-winning international publishing house for which he has created numerous comics and graphic novels. Richardson is also the founder and President of Dark Horse Entertainment where he has produced many projects for film and television.

Current assignments: Mike Richardsson has no other current assignments.

Holdings in Embracer Group*: Mike Richardson has no holding of shares in Embracer Group AB (publ).

*Holdings in the company is updated every quarter, in connection with our interim reports.

Board independence

After an assessment of the directors’ independence the composition of the board of directors of the company is considered to fulfill the requirements stipulated in Nasdaq First North’s Rule Book. As Embracer Group is listed on Nasdaq First North the requirements for composition of the board set out in the Swedish Corporate Governance are not applicable for Embracer Group.

According to Nasdaq First North’s Rule Book an overall assessment of the appropriateness of the management and the board of directors must be made in each individual case, considering for example the size of the issuer and the business operations. In order for the board of directors to be considered appropriate, at least one of the board members must be independent of the issuer, its management, and the issuer’s major shareholders. In addition, as a general rule, not more than half of the number of Board members may serve in the Issuer’s management, and the entire management may not serve on the Board of directors. Furthermore, it is only in exceptional cases permissible for both the CEO and the CFO to serve on the board of directors. Exceptional circumstances applicable in an individual issuer may necessitate a stricter requirement regarding independence. For the purpose of the aforementioned, independence shall be defined in the same way as in the Swedish Corporate Governance Code.

In Embracer Group’s board Kicki Wallje Lund, David Gardner, Jacob Jonmyren and Ulf Hjalmarsson are considered independent to the company, the management of the company and the company’s major shareholders. The directors Lars Wingefors and Erik Stenberg are considered dependent of the company as both of them are part of the management of the company. Matthew Karch is considered dependent of the company and the management of the company as he is part of the management of the company and also subordinate to the CEO of the company.