Jesper Ovesen

"But the opposite happened. Poul Plougmann had had two chances to get LEGO back on track. Now a third, even more critical rescue attempt was at hand, where it was clear many would have to be dismissed. Trust was gone. Poul Plougmann was dismissed. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen stepped in and took over the leadership of LEGO and brought the 34-year-old Jørgen Vig Knudstorp close to him as an advisor, flanked by Jesper Ovesen."

"So Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, in close cooperation with Jesper Ovesen, began working on a new rescue plan. The two completely cut areas like film production and PC games, moved 80 percent of the brick production to cheaper countries like Mexico and Eastern Europe, reduced the number of bricks to 7,000, sold off buildings, sold the majority stake in the theme parks to Merlin Entertainments Group and the private equity fund Blackstone Partners for 2.8 billion kroner, and made the budgets financially transparent so it was visible exactly where money was being made and where it wasn’t."

"In 2003, Jesper Ovesen was hired as the CFO at LEGO. He came from Danske Bank and before that from Novo Nordisk and Baltica – a skilled and experienced financial expert who quickly and straightforwardly addressed the organization’s fiscal weaknesses. At his first management conference, he began by writing a large multi-billion figure on a blank board and asked the leaders if they could guess what the number stood for. None could. The figure was the amount the management had destroyed for LEGO’s shareholders."