Ørsted’s replacement may seem modest but shows confidence in own people — EnergyWatch

On Tuesday, Ørsted announced the names of the company’s new CFO and COO.

This means that Ørsted has changed three key positions since the announcement of the large write-downs in the US, as chairman of the board Thomas Thune Andersen has also announced his resignation. He will be replaced by the current vice chair Lene Skole.

However, only the new CFO, Trond Weslie, comes from outside the company. The other two have been recruited from the utility’s own ranks.

Considering the extent of the problems, this may seem like a modest replacement, according to Sydbank’s chief analyst Jacob Pedersen.

”Considering the size of the US problems in terms of the financial amount, it may seem like a limited replacement that Trond Westlie is the only new external person in the management, but considering the nature of the US problems, Ørsted is, in our assessment, landing the management cabal in a sound and sensible way,” he writes in an analysis where Ørsted’s recommendation of ”hold” is maintained.

According to Pedersen, the focus is now on executing the US projects.

”The US problems are hurting the company, but they are preceded by a long, long period of virtually flawless project execution – on time and on budget. In our view, Ørsted’s internal selection of the company’s new COO confirms the signals that the problems in the US are limited, identifiable and learnable,” he writes.

The new COO, Patrick Harnett, is currently Ørsted’s head of execution programs in Europe, leading the UK Hornsea 3 project.

Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk