Saxo Bank has added two new members to its board of directors, with the appointment of Lone Fønss Schrøder as vice chairman and Jacob Polny, a former alternate member, who will continue on as a full member of the board.

Saxo Bank, the Copenhagen-based online trading and investment specialist, has added two new members to its board of directors, with the appointment of Lone Fønss Schrøder as vice chairman and Jacob Polny, a former alternate member, who will continue on as a full member of the board.

The new members take over from Asiff Hirji, partner in TPG Capital and Kurt K. Larsen, chairman of the international transport group DSV, who have both left the board.

The new board of directors was approved by Saxo’s shareholders at an extraordinary meeting held right before Christmas, the firm said in a statement.

Through the appointments, chairman Dennis Malamatinas said that the board would continue “to focus on Saxo Bank’s core business in order to be the most profitable facilitator in the global capital markets”.

Schrøder is partner and co-founder of the Swedish development and corporate improvement firm, Norfalck, in addition to holding board seats in international companies in the Nordics, Europe, Canada and in China’s Volvo Car Corporation.

She has over 30 years experience within corporate governance, including strategy implementation and business building for EPCI companies, oil and gas industrial production, aviation, OEM, shipping and logistics and financial institutions. Schrøder began her career in the Maersk Group in 1982, becoming the highest placed woman within group history, and from 2005 to 2010, she was chief executive and president of Wallenius Lines, the world’s largest roll-on/roll-off carrier.

Polny, principal at the private investment firm TPG Capital which acquired 30 per cent of Saxo Bank in 2011, has been an alternate member of the Saxo Bank board since December 2011 and will now continue as a full member of the board of directors.

Prior to joining TPG in 2008, Polny was a senior associate at Altor Equity Partners, and also served as an analyst in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs in London.

The private and online investment bank, Saxo, is owned by its Danish founders, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, as well as TPG Capital which owns 30 per cent of the firm.