Lars John Yanhamar

Lars Johann Hamar has been serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of IKEA Group since January 2015. Yarn Hamar is a member of IKEA's board of directors and has served as the CEO of Tele2 Telephone Company, owned by the Stenbeck family in Sweden, for 10 years. Tele2 AB is a major telecommunications operator in Europe with approximately 14 million users in 9 countries. IKEA Group owns the vast majority of IKEA stores worldwide and is striving to double its revenue by 2020 by enhancing its existing store capabilities, opening new stores, and expanding online sales. In the 2013 fiscal year, IKEA's sales increased by 31% to 27.9 billion euros (38.7 billion US dollars). Lars John began leading the company in 1991 when he joined Kinnevik Group Investment Company, which holds approximately 30 shares and operates in over 80 countries across five continents, particularly in the growth market. The largest holding companies are Zalando, Millicom, Tele2, Rocket Internet, Global Fashion Group, and MTG. He has been appointed as the Managing Director of Z-TV, a music and video channel in Sweden. Shortly thereafter, his career at Kinnevik Group accelerated and he became the Managing Director of the emerging telecommunications company comviq GSM AB. After the merger of comviq and Tele2, Lars John went to Saab Automotive to start a new challenge, where he began managing Saab Automotive's Scandinavian, Baltic, and Russian markets. In 1998, Lars John returned to Kinnevik Group as Executive Vice President, responsible for developing customer service company Transcom and operating loyalty management company Collect AB. From 1990 to 2008, Lars John served as the President and CEO of Tele2 AB. The companies he currently holds as managers include the parent company of IKEA, a subsidiary of Ingka Holdings; Apoteket AB, a state-owned pharmaceutical retailer of the Swedish government; Arvid Nordquist Handelsaktiebolag, a coffee, food and wine distributor, is a board member of SAS, with Egmont International Holdings A\/S, Elite Hotel SSRS Holdings Limited, and a mobile application provider. He is also the chairman of BRIS, a Swedish children's rights organization. Lars John is passionate about customer service and places customers at the core of all the businesses he leads.