Jørgen Lindegaard (born 7 October 1948) is a Danish businessman who has held several major posts in large Danish and Scandinavian companies. Most famously, he was CEO of the

SAS Group SAS AB, trading as SAS Group, is a Swedish airline holding company headquartered in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines, SAS Link, and SAS Connect. As of 2024, SAS Group is owned by a group of s ...

from May 2001 – late 2006.

Education and career

He graduated with a master's degree in engineering from the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...

in 1975 and started working for Philips Telekommunikation, a subsidiary of the Dutch

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

conglomerate, where he stayed until 1977. At that time he joined Fyns Telefon, a now defunct regional unit of the Danish national

telecoms Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company TDC A/S. In 1991, after 14 years at Fyns Telefon, he joined

KTAS KTAS (channel 33) is a television station licensed to San Luis Obispo, California, United States, serving the Central Coast of California as an affiliate of Diya TV. Owned by Major Market Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Carmen La ...

the regional equivalent telecoms unit for

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

where he stayed for 4 years until joining

GN Store Nord GN Store Nord A/S is a Danish manufacturer of hearing aids (GN ReSound/GN Hearing), speakerphones, videobars and headsets ( Jabra (GN Audio) and SteelSeries). GN Store Nord A/S is listed on NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen (ISIN code DK0010272632). Hist ...

. After more than 25 years in the telecoms industry he was headhunted to become the CEO of SAS, where he oversaw a turbulent time in the international aviation industry including

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and the deadly crash at

Milan Linate Milan Linate Airport is a city airport located in Milan, the second-largest city and largest urban area of Italy. It served 10.6 million passengers and recorded 118,060 aircraft movements in 2024, making it one of the busiest airports in Ital ...

of Scandinavian Airlines flight SK686 on 8 October 2001. At the same time, rising oil pricesBP oil prices 2001 – 2006
and several staff disputesSAS Group, Interim Report, Q3, 2006
/ref> over pay, staff cuts
/ref> and working conditions hampered his ability to institute the necessary turn-around at SAS. At the time of his departure, the company was still in severe financial difficulties.TheLocal.se, May 16, 2006
/ref> He left the company in 2006 to become the CEO of the world's largest facilities management company, and Denmark's largest global employer, ISS A/S. At the press conference in Stockholm announcing his resignation from SAS on 16 May 2006 he publicly admitted that he was burnt out and said: "''It is possible to lose sight of the commercial side of the business when you're so highly focused on the costs, and now, somebody else has to take on the job. However, it is clear that further cost cuts are still needed, as well as commercial initiatives, at SAS''".Borsen.dk, 16 May 2006 (''in Danish'')
/ref> He is a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (, NTVA) is a learned society based in Trondheim, Norway. Founded in 1955, the academy has about 500 members. It is a member of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technologica ...

References

1948 births Living people Danish chief executives SAS Group people Chief executives in the airline industry Members of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences Technical University of Denmark alumni GN Store Nord people {{Denmark-business-bio-stub