Danny Feltmann Espersen has spent nearly 30 years working in branding, digitalization, customer journeys, ESG agendas, and international growth and scalability within the brand sector. His career has been notably shaped by the fashion industry, including nearly 18 years in various leadership roles at HM and subsequently as President CEO at Swedish KappAhl. His career has also included positions with other high-end consumer goods manufacturers, such as BO and skincare company Karmameju.

Until January 2023, he was Group CEO at Designers Company, the parent company of several design businesses. Since then, he has focused on building a career around a portfolio of board positions and as a partner at the investment firm Executive Capital. Today, all his time is dedicated to investment and board work, which includes board positions at Becksöndergaard and Fairpoint Outdoors. He has also previously served on the boards of Joe The Juice and kitchen company TCM Group.

“Scalability, internationalization, and growth have been the common thread in all the areas I have been involved in, including, of course, brand building. These are the skills I now want to bring into the boardroom,” says Danny Feltmann Espersen, adding:

“In all the years I have been involved in board work, it has been ‘learning by doing.’ For a long time, a board education has been high on my wish list, but the time hasn’t been right. With the transition to a professional board career, the right time had come, and I was also recommended the Executive Board Programme at INSEAD, which has an excellent and international reputation.”

“Top-notch”
According to Danny Feltmann Espersen, the quality and level of the program were top-notch – both in the module in Denmark and the subsequent module at INSEAD in France.

“The Danish instructors were both skilled and quite entertaining. The professors at INSEAD in France were formidable and extremely engaged. Although it was teaching they had clearly delivered many times before, it was by no means boring or routine – they really delivered. I feel that I have been greatly enriched by the program, which is also thanks to the many talented participants who contributed to the high level,” he states.

Despite his background as a financial economist and years of experience with private equity funds, it was the learning about financial matters that had the greatest impact on him.

“Even though I have worked extensively with these issues before, I really appreciated getting many of the aspects related to value creation model management systematized. It was simply excellent, and I almost wrote a book for myself during this session. Next, I would highlight the knowledge and inspiration I gained regarding facilitation in the boardroom. It was a significant learning experience for me to become more aware of how to engage everyone and ensure that all perspectives are heard. It was a bit of an aha moment,” he concludes, adding:

“The new knowledge has already been applied in my board work, including in an ongoing strategic process. Overall, this has been a strong program for me.”