Ekelund most recently came from the role as Chief Operating Officer for the retail chain Nille.

In recent years, extensive development work has been initiated within Quality Hotel with the aim of growing as a company in new markets, developing guest experiences and continuing to build the corporate culture to become one of the best in the industry. Now the work is entering a new phase and to give further impetus to this work, the hotel chain has recruited Fredrik Ekelund as the new CEO of the Nordic operations.

– Quality Hotel is on an exciting journey where it is moving from quality-assured service deliveries to creating surprising, new, exciting guest experiences. This is a journey that requires an extremely responsible leader with passion, great execution power and who sees commercial opportunities in most things. Based on this, we have been looking for a person who understands how to build a large dream team of our more than 5,000 employees so that we can make our ambitions a reality. Fredrik is a person who possesses all the parts that we are looking for and who I am sure will deliver from day one, says Katalin Paldeak, Chief Operating Officer Nordic Choice Hotels.

Fredrik Ekelund holds a Master of Science in Electronics Design from Linköping University of Technology and currently works as COO and is responsible for the commercial operations and development of concepts and marketing at the Norwegian retail chain Nille. Within Nille, Ekelund has worked to rebrand the chain, develop a clearer store concept and create added value for customers who choose to visit the stores. Experience that is central to Quality Hotels' development work.

– I am passionate about building strong teams. Teams that not only deliver experiences that keep guests coming back, but also make the staff love going to work. Quality Hotel is in an incredibly exciting position that I want to be a part of. I love thinking big, setting high goals and then delivering together with the employees, says Fredrik Ekelund, incoming Senior Vice President Quality Hotel.

Ekelund's previous work at Deloitte, Orkla and not least Nille has involved a lot of travel and hotel nights over the years. Experience that he is now bringing to his new assignment.

– My ambition is that we will combine a big heart with the courage to take up more space, challenge and surprise. They say that the hotel industry is very conservative. In the coming years we will prove that this is not true. At least not at Quality Hotel, says Fredrik Ekelund.

Fredrik Ekelund was born and raised in Halmstad but has lived in Oslo with his family for many years. He will take up his new position on October 31.