William Demant Holding A/S announced that President & CEO - Niels Jacobsen has decided to step down after 25 years as member of the Executive Board to become CEO of William Demant Invest A/S. The present Chief Operating Officer (COO) Søren Nielsen will become new President & CEO of William Demant Holding. The management changes will take effect on 1 April 2017. As a result of the above changes, Chairman of the Board, Lars Nørby Johan sen, will not stand for re-election at the coming annual general meeting.

Lars Nørby Johansen w3ill, however, continue his work in the William Demant Group, as the board of the Oticon Foundation has nominated him for the position of chairman of the board of the Oticon Foundation, where he will succeed Niels Boserup, who wants to step down after more than 10 years as chairman of the Oticon Foundation. As a consequence of the changes, the Board of Directors of the company is after the annual general meeting on 27 March expected to elect the present Board member Niels B. Christiansen as new Chairman and Niels Jacobsen as new Deputy Chairman. In 2015, Søren Nielsen was appointed as COO of William Demant Holding, and he has since 2008 been responsible for Oticon where he will continue as President.

For the past eight years, Søren Nielsen has been overall responsible for the whole hearing aid business, and he has had a decisive say in important strategic decisions and acquisitions for the whole Group, most recently also as a member of the Executive Board since September 2015.