Jens Birgersson

Our reason for being is to produce innovative, resource-saving products from stone, one of the world’s most abundant natural materials.

— Jens Birgersson

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Overview

Jens Birgersson
Born	1967 (age 58–59) Sweden
Citizenship	Sweden
Education	Master's degree in Engineering Physics; Bachelor's degree in Economics
Alma mater	KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Stockholm University; Harvard Business School (Advanced Management Program)
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Brenntag SE
Known for	Transformational leadership at Rockwool Group and Brenntag SE; sustainability-focused industrial strategy
Title	Chief Executive Officer and Management Board Chairman
Term	2025–present
Predecessor	Christian Kohlpaintner
Board member of	dormakaba Holding AG; Randers Reb International A/S; NREP advisory board

🧭 Jens Birgersson (born 1967) is a Swedish business executive who has led major industrial and chemical distribution companies in Europe. He served as president and chief executive officer of Rockwool Group, a Danish manufacturer of stone-wool insulation, from 2015 to 2024, and in September 2025 he became chief executive officer and management board chairman of Brenntag SE, a global chemicals distributor headquartered in Germany.

🌍 Global industrial profile. Before reaching the top jobs at Rockwool and Brenntag, Birgersson built a career spanning power technology, minerals, building materials and chemical distribution, holding senior roles at ABB and Imerys and developing a reputation for cross-border management, cost discipline and operational turnarounds in listed, market-leading companies.

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Early life and education

🎓 Swedish upbringing and dual academic training. Birgersson was born in Sweden in 1967 and grew up in a context that combined strong engineering traditions with an emphasis on social welfare, influences that later shaped his interest in technology, economics and society. He studied engineering physics at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, earning a master's degree, and complemented this with a bachelor's degree in economics from Stockholm University, giving him an unusually broad grounding in both quantitative science and financial analysis.

🌐 Executive education and international exposure. In mid-career, Birgersson broadened his outlook through executive education, notably completing the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, which exposed him to international business frameworks and an alumni network of senior leaders from different industries and regions. This combination of technical training, economics and global management studies underpins the analytical yet commercially oriented style that colleagues later associated with his leadership at Rockwool and Brenntag.

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Career

💼 From engineer to global executive. After graduating in the early 1990s, Birgersson joined ABB and went on to occupy a sequence of managerial positions across Europe and Africa, before later moving to Imerys and ultimately into chief executive roles at Rockwool Group and Brenntag SE, tracing a career arc from engineering specialist to internationally focused industrial CEO.

ABB and Imerys (1992–2014)

⚙️ Early career at ABB. Birgersson began his professional career in 1992 at ABB, the Swiss–Swedish engineering group, initially working in the power systems division. Over more than a decade he held roles in Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa, gaining practical experience managing factories, projects and customer relationships in both mature and emerging markets, and earning a reputation as a calm, detail-oriented manager comfortable with both technical and commercial issues.

🌍 Move to Imerys and return to ABB. In 2005 he left ABB to join Imerys, a French industrial minerals company, as executive vice president responsible for its Performance Minerals and Pigments business, based in Belgium. The move took him into the mining and specialty materials sector and exposed him to portfolio and supply-chain issues in raw materials, but in 2008 he returned to ABB in Zurich to head the Network Management business unit, which focused on smart-grid and utility software, a role that further developed his experience integrating acquisitions and driving efficiency programmes across borders.

Rockwool Group (2015–2024)

🏗️ Appointment as Rockwool chief executive. In October 2014 Rockwool International, a Danish manufacturer of stone-wool insulation, announced that Birgersson would become its new chief executive, with the board stating it wanted a leader with solid experience in managing major global businesses after a period of expansion. He relocated from Zurich to Denmark and formally took over as president and CEO of Rockwool Group in early 2015, succeeding a long-serving predecessor and inheriting a company that had already expanded significantly but sought sharper performance and global coordination.

📈 Transformation programme and capacity expansion. Shortly after taking office, Birgersson launched a business transformation programme aimed at improving Rockwool’s efficiency and performance culture, placing strong emphasis on metrics and key performance indicators across operations, energy use and commercial effectiveness. Under his leadership the group expanded manufacturing capacity in North America and Europe, announcing and building new plants in the United States, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia – including facilities in Mississippi and West Virginia – to bring production closer to growing markets for stone-wool insulation.

💶 Revenue growth and record profitability. During Birgersson’s tenure Rockwool’s revenues increased from roughly €2.2 billion in 2015 to almost €3.9 billion by 2022, supported by particularly strong growth in markets such as North America, while the company’s EBIT margin rose to historically high levels in the low-to-mid-teens. Rockwool’s chairman later credited Birgersson as a driving force behind the group’s positive business development, noting significantly higher sales and profitability and describing the period as one of successful transformation that consolidated Rockwool’s position as a leading global producer of stone-wool insulation.

🌱 Sustainability positioning and ESG strategy. Birgersson also repositioned Rockwool strongly around sustainability, arguing that the company’s “reason for being” was to produce resource-saving products from stone and emphasising that its insulation could save many times the carbon emitted in its manufacture over a building’s lifetime. Under his leadership Rockwool set targets for reducing factory CO₂ emissions, increasing recycling and aligning with global development and climate goals, while he promoted the role of energy-efficient buildings at events such as climate and sustainability forums.

🕊️ Departure from Rockwool. After nearly a decade in the role, Birgersson announced in February 2024 that he would step down as Rockwool’s chief executive later that year, stating that for a global company it was a long tenure and that he wished to focus on his family and pursue new interests. He left the company in August 2024 with the board publicly thanking him for his strong leadership and highlighting the significant sales growth and record margins achieved during his period in charge.

Brenntag SE (2025–present)

🧪 Appointment at Brenntag. In May 2025 Brenntag SE, the world’s largest chemical distributor, announced that Jens Birgersson would become its new chief executive officer and chairman of the management board with effect from 1 September 2025, succeeding Christian Kohlpaintner. Brenntag’s supervisory board cited his more than twenty years of management experience in listed, international market-leading companies and highlighted his track record of driving profitable growth and operational improvement as key reasons for his selection.

📊 Shareholder activism and strategic context. Birgersson took over Brenntag at a time when the company was under pressure from activist investors, including PrimeStone Capital and Engine Capital, which had publicly urged a break-up into separate Specialties and Essentials entities following an aborted attempt to acquire rival distributor Univar in 2022. Activists argued that a spin-off of the higher-growth Specialties division could unlock substantial shareholder value and help close what they saw as a valuation gap, while Brenntag’s leadership stressed the benefits of retaining an integrated business with two complementary divisions.

🏭 Restructuring, cost-cutting and strategic review. Early in his tenure Birgersson initiated an accelerated cost-cutting programme and signalled that simplifying Brenntag’s organisation and improving margins were immediate priorities, including downsizing the management board to the chief executive and chief financial officer supported by an executive committee in place of separate divisional CEOs. In 2025 the company reported that these measures had already generated tens of millions of euros in savings and that Birgersson had launched a comprehensive strategic review of Brenntag’s structure and long-term positioning, with a new strategy expected to be presented in 2026 while both divisions were retained.

📉 Balancing activism and operational improvement. Commentators such as Paragon Intel have suggested that Brenntag’s decision to hire Birgersson reflects confidence in his ability to combine cost-cutting and operational improvement with careful assessment of structural options, noting his previous experience in raising margins and turning around underperforming units while managing complex stakeholder expectations. While some investors continue to advocate an immediate spin-off of the Specialties business, Birgersson has so far focused on strengthening profitability, tightening earnings guidance in a volatile market and seeking to demonstrate that value can be unlocked through internal changes as well as, or instead of, major corporate reorganisation.

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Financials and wealth

💷 Executive remuneration at Rockwool. As chief executive of Rockwool, Birgersson received compensation typical for a top European industrial executive, with the company’s 2022 remuneration report showing total pay of about €2.83 million, including a base salary of around €1.73 million, pension contributions, an annual bonus and the grant-date value of long-term share-based incentives. His overall package fluctuated with company performance and was slightly higher in particularly strong years such as 2021, reflecting Rockwool’s variable-pay structure.

💶 Severance and equity on departure. When Birgersson stepped down from Rockwool in 2024, the company’s remuneration report records that he received a severance payment equal to twelve months’ base salary, amounting to approximately €2.743 million, in line with his employment contract. He did not receive an additional “golden parachute” beyond this contractual severance, and previously granted share-based incentives continued to vest according to their original schedules, subject to performance conditions.

💰 Estimated net worth and shareholdings. Public filings and market data compiled by MarketScreener in 2025 estimated Birgersson’s personal net worth at around US$27 million, with a significant portion linked to his holdings in industrial companies. In particular, he owns roughly 29,000 shares in dormakaba Holding AG, where he has served as a board member since 2018, a stake that accounted for a large share of the estimated net worth and underscores the role of equity-based compensation and personal investment in his financial profile.

🏦 Board fees and diversified income. Beyond his main executive roles, Birgersson has earned additional income through non-executive directorships and advisory positions, including his role on the dormakaba board, chairmanship of Randers Reb International and membership of the advisory board of NREP, a Nordic real estate investment firm. These posts typically provide fees or share-based rewards that diversify his income but are modest compared with CEO pay, contributing to a financial position characterised more by steady, multi-million-euro wealth than by the extreme fortunes associated with founders of high-growth technology companies.

📊 Compensation at Brenntag and investor scrutiny. As chief executive of Brenntag, Birgersson is expected to receive a remuneration package broadly in line with that of his predecessor, combining fixed pay, annual bonus and long-term incentives in the form of shares or options, although full details are disclosed in Brenntag’s annual reports rather than in advance. His performance at Brenntag is closely watched by an investor base that includes both long-term shareholders and activist funds, as well as prominent individual investors such as logistics magnate Klaus-Michael Kühne, whose stakes underline the expectations placed on Brenntag’s leadership to deliver attractive returns.

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Personal life and management style

🏡 Family and private life. Public information about Birgersson’s private life is limited, consistent with a preference for keeping his family out of the spotlight, but company statements have noted that he was living in Zurich with his family at the time of his appointment as Rockwool’s chief executive in 2014. When announcing his departure from Rockwool in 2024 he stated that, after nearly ten years in the role, he looked forward to focusing on taking care of his family and exploring new interests, indicating the importance he attaches to family considerations in career decisions.

📐 Analytical and hands-on leadership style. Colleagues and board statements describe Birgersson as a business-oriented engineer who combines analytical rigour with operational focus, often delving into data and detailed performance indicators while remaining closely engaged with factories and customers. During his time at Rockwool he was known for regular visits to production sites and R&D centres, encouraging dialogue with engineers and sales teams while setting clear targets and holding managers accountable for results.

🌿 Sustainability focus and communications. In public communications Birgersson has frequently linked Rockwool’s and later Brenntag’s strategies to wider environmental and social considerations, emphasising the role of insulation and efficient industrial processes in reducing carbon emissions and improving quality of life. As Rockwool chief executive he presented the company’s 2030 sustainability goals, stressing that the group was looking outward at how its products could tackle global challenges and inward at reducing its own footprint, a message aligned with broader Scandinavian traditions of environmental stewardship.

🛡️ Emphasis on safety and employee welfare. Safety has been a recurring theme in Birgersson’s leadership, with internal Rockwool communications featuring him personally promoting the principle that no job is so urgent that it cannot be done safely. His advocacy for safety standards and a precautionary culture has been part of efforts to reinforce employee protection in manufacturing environments that involve high temperatures, heavy materials and complex machinery.

⛵ Interests and international persona. Accounts of Birgersson’s off-duty interests depict him as enjoying outdoor activities typical of Nordic culture, such as hiking and sailing, and as maintaining fitness through running while travelling on business, although such aspects are less documented than his corporate roles. He is widely regarded as a multilingual, internationally oriented executive, fluent in Swedish and English and familiar with Danish and German business environments after long periods living and working in those countries, which supports his ability to lead companies with operations across Europe and beyond.

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Controversies and challenges

🏭 Community opposition to Rockwool’s West Virginia plant. One of the most visible challenges of Birgersson’s Rockwool tenure arose from plans to build a stone-wool insulation plant in Jefferson County, West Virginia, announced in 2017, which sparked strong local opposition over concerns about air emissions, noise and proximity to schools. The controversy led to public protests and the mass resignation of members of a local development board, but Rockwool, with Birgersson’s backing, maintained its commitment to the investment, emphasising compliance with environmental regulations and the expected creation of jobs and economic activity in the region, and eventually completed the plant, which opened in 2021.

⚔️ Operations in Russia and “International Sponsor of War” designation. Rockwool’s continued presence in Russia following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drew intensive scrutiny, as the company maintained ownership of its Russian factories while halting new investments and arguing that withdrawal could lead to loss of control over the assets without reducing production. Investigative reporting indicated that Rockwool insulation supplied via intermediaries had been used in Russian naval vessels, and in November 2023 Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention designated Rockwool an “international sponsor of war”, accusing the company of indirectly supporting the Russian war effort through its ongoing Russian operations and tax payments. Rockwool rejected suggestions that it supported the invasion and stressed that it did not sell directly to the Russian military, but the episode nevertheless damaged the company’s reputation and complicated assessments of Birgersson’s otherwise sustainability-focused leadership legacy.

📈 Shareholder activism at Brenntag. At Brenntag, Birgersson inherited a company already under pressure from activist investors who publicly called for a break-up into separate Specialties and Essentials businesses and criticised what they viewed as underperformance and an overly complex structure. While Brenntag’s board has acknowledged the activists’ viewpoints and has held what it describes as constructive dialogue, the company under Birgersson has so far responded by tightening its strategic focus, cutting costs and conducting a structured review of options rather than immediately adopting the proposed split, a stance that continues to be scrutinised by investors and analysts.

🧮 Balancing pragmatism and stakeholder expectations. Observers have noted that across these episodes Birgersson has tended to prioritise what he regards as the long-term operational and financial health of the companies he leads, sometimes at the expense of satisfying all stakeholders in the short term. Supporters point to his record of improving margins and expanding businesses through disciplined execution, while critics argue that decisions such as maintaining operations in Russia illustrate the ethical and reputational risks of a highly pragmatic approach to complex geopolitical and community issues.

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Other activities and recognition

🔗 Board memberships and advisory roles. In addition to his executive posts, Birgersson has held a number of non-executive and advisory positions, including serving on the board of dormakaba Holding AG, a Swiss provider of security and access solutions, since 2018, chairing the board of Danish rope manufacturer Randers Reb International and sitting on the advisory board of the Nordic real estate investment manager NREP. Earlier in his career he held directorships at entities such as Nanjing SAC Automation in China and Flumroc AG in Switzerland, reflecting a sustained engagement with industrial businesses beyond his primary employer.

🏛️ Industry engagement and policy influence. During his time at Rockwool, Birgersson participated in industry organisations and employer federations, including bodies under the Confederation of Danish Industry, contributing to discussions on manufacturing, trade and climate policy from the perspective of energy-efficient building materials. His roles in these fora, together with his public statements on energy efficiency and sustainable construction, have given him some influence in debates over regulation and standards affecting the wider construction and industrial sectors.

📈 Investor perceptions and market performance. Under Birgersson’s leadership Rockwool’s share price and total shareholder return improved significantly compared with earlier periods, with investors welcoming both operational improvements and more active capital allocation policies such as dividends and share repurchases introduced during his tenure. Commentators have highlighted his ability to balance the interests of the founding Rockwool family, which retains significant voting control, and those of minority shareholders, a skill that is seen as relevant to his later work with Brenntag’s diverse investor base.

🌐 Cross-sector experience and crisis management. Having held senior roles in power technology, industrial minerals, building materials and chemical distribution, Birgersson is regarded as an example of a transnational industrial leader able to operate across sectors and geographies, managing teams in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. He has led companies through periods of economic volatility, including the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, where at Rockwool he combined cost control with efforts to capture renewed demand as construction activity recovered, experience that informs his approach to steering Brenntag through cyclical swings in industrial activity.

🧭 Overall assessment. Analysts and business media generally characterise Jens Birgersson as a steady, data-driven leader who specialises in improving operations and margins in complex industrial businesses while positioning them within broader sustainability and stakeholder debates. His career from ABB engineer to Brenntag chief executive illustrates a progression built on technical expertise, financial understanding and international management experience, coupled with a pragmatic approach to controversial issues that has attracted both praise for results and criticism over difficult ethical trade-offs.

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