Chairman, Non-Executive Director, CEO (Ret.) and Mentor
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard is a truly global CEO and a specialist in Luxury Brands, Consumer Brands and Retail. Most of his career has been spent with family-controlled companies, Publicly listed as well as Privately held, but he has also worked for Private Equity owned companies. Hailing from Denmark, he has lived and worked 10 years in Asia as well as in the U.S., Italy, France and Switzerland.
Hans-Kristian is the Chairman of Bonhams, the international auction house since October 2020, also in the same year was elected Chairman of Calida Group, having served since 2019 as Vice Chairman and since 2014 as a non-executive Board Director of publicly listed Calida Holding AG (Underwear, Lingerie and Outdoor/Sports clothing) in Switzerland. After 9 years on the Board he stepped down in 2023.
In 2024 Hans-Kristian became Chairman of the Board of Wine and Barrels Ltd., Europe’s leading purveyor of wine cellars and wine accessories.
In 2023 Hans-Kristian became member of the Board of 5-star Hotel d’Angleterre in Copenhagen, Denmark
In 2019 Hans-Kristian joined the Board of Directors of Barclays Bank (Suisse) SA, the Private Bank of Barclays in Switzerland. He served on the Audit Committee from 2019-2020 and since 2020 he Chairs the Advisory Committee on Strategy.
From 2019-2021 he was on the Board of Directors of publicly listed, but government controlled, MCH Group in Switzerland, parent company of Art Basel and Masterpiece London. Hans-Kristian served as interim Group CEO from 2018 to 2019. As Chair of the Board’s Strategy Committee he spearheaded a major Capital Increase bringing in James Murdoch’s LUPA System as an anchor shareholder in 2021.
In late 2017 Hans-Kristian (aka HK) retired from Oettinger Davidoff, a world leader in premium handmade cigars and luxury accessories, where he was the global CEO for 7 years and a Board member for 4 years. HK lead Davidoff through an ambitious phase of brand renewal, extraordinary growth and a transformative new direction, including spearheading the global partnership with Art Basel and the launch of the Davidoff Art Initiative.
Prior to Davidoff, HK was the global CEO of the Timex Group, based in the U.S., one of the world’s largest watch companies, where he also served as Chairman of the Board of its publicly listed company in India. This followed a 5-year stint as global CEO of Georg Jensen, the jeweller, silversmith, watchmaker and homeware Design company. He joined Georg Jensen after having been the President of Coty Prestige, the world leading fragrance company.
Previously HK was the Regional MD Asia Pacific at LVMH for Guerlain perfumes and cosmetics, based in Hong Kong, and prior to that in the spirits and wine business with Canadian distillers Joseph E. Seagram & Sons with postings in Rome, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
In 2018 HK founded Hoejsgaard & Co. AG providing Independent Advice in Business.
HK holds a BA in Business and Organizational Behaviour from the Southern Denmark University and has undertaken extensive executive education at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and at Wharton. In 2009 he co-authored “Experience Leadership in Practice”.
