Fredrik Tønnesen appointed as Group CEO at tech retailer Currys following Alex Baldock’s departure
Electricals and technology retailer Currys has announced the appointment of Fredrik Tønnesen as Group Chief Executive Officer, effective 3rd August.
He has served as Chief Executive of Currys’ Nordics business since March 2023, with responsibility for approximately 40% of group revenue. He brings over 20 years of experience with the company, having started his career on the shop floor as a sales assistant and subsequently serving as Managing Director for Norway and Nordics Chief Operating Officer.
Tønnesen replaces Alex Baldock, who will step down from the board on 3rd August and will support the orderly transition of responsibilities until his departure on 31st August.
Ian Dyson, Chair, says: “I am delighted to welcome Fredrik as our next Group Chief Executive. He has huge experience inside the business and has led an extremely impressive operating performance improvement over the last three years. He understands our customers, our colleagues and our culture from the inside, and brings the right combination of clarity, energy and leadership to take Currys forward, building on the strong foundations that Alex and the team have put in place."
Tønnesen says: “I'm incredibly proud to be leading Currys, a company that I joined 20 years ago on the shop floor and know extremely well. This is a great business comprising thousands of capable and committed colleagues, and it is hugely exciting to take on its leadership at a time of such strong momentum. My job, with the full support of the leadership team and all my colleagues, is to keep this momentum going and find every way to accelerate it. I can't wait to get started.”
Baldock comments: "Fredrik is an outstanding leader, and I’m delighted to see him take the reins at Currys. His experience and track record speak for themselves, most recently in leading the Nordics’ recovery. I look forward to watching Currys go from strength to strength under his leadership.”
RTS 2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) was much discussed at Retail Technology Show 2026 in London during April. There are plenty of shiny, happy solutions out there, but making the technology pay in real-world applications is the challenge. Ryan den Rooijen, Managing Director of AI & Monetisation at Currys, is tasked with doing this, principally via retail media sales.
“Unusually, AI isn’t business first. It’s consumer first in its adoption,” he said on the opening day of RTS 2026 on 22nd April. “It’s being reversed into our organisation now.”
The two principal applications at present are more efficiency and process focused than revenue raising opportunities. Currys has action AI hand devices in stores, for example, that help staff answer consumer queries more quickly and fully, “with appropriate training” and they use AI in better understanding customer sentiment to aid personalisation in service applications and marketing. AI can help with stock too, added den Rooijen.
“We’re obsessed with feedback,” he said in conversation with the moderator of the Supernova stage at RTS 2026, Kate Hardcastle, a well known broadcaster and industry expert. “We don’t have to go through sheets and sheets of information anymore to get the (sentiment) data we want.”
“The challenge is how to monetise this information? Currys has a deep understanding of technology (as an electrical retailer) and of our customers. We get lots of demand signals from our website and stores. Manufacturers would like to know this data.” This means retail media is the revenue raising opportunity.
“In Europe we are not as far down the road as the US is on this journey,” said the former Google executive, who is a technology enthusiast that went on to work for Dyson, “with a more product focused lens” and in luxury retail in the Middle East.
“On our website ads aren’t random. Certain demographics can be targeted (if we master the data). The opportunity as a ‘publisher’ is interesting I think. But we’re only two out of five at the moment in how far advanced we are on this journey.”
“I used to work for pureplay tech firms so know it’s the data that gives us the opportunity. For example, when a family grow we can see the progression (in their buying habits). That is useful data. It is not just ‘eyeballs’. We will win if we’re focused and on top of the data. I’m not pretending we’re there yet but AI will help us.”
A bucket list of wishes
den Rooijen listed three key things that Currys does, namely its “buckets” as he called them:
Selling fridges and goods: This is very competitive low margin business.
Selling services: This includes after care warranties, repairs and renovation services for old goods that can be refurbished. The latter is particularly useful in aiding the sustainability of electrical goods and as a revenue raiser during the present cost of living crisis. “It also drives customer loyalty and lifetime value.”
Serve and understand its customers: This is an unconstrained opportunity. It includes the retail media opportunity.
