Finance
Factbox-Five things to know about Spotify's new co-CEOs
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Spotify appoints Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs, with Daniel Ek becoming executive chairman. Learn about their backgrounds and roles.
(Reuters) -Spotify's founder-CEO Daniel Ek will become executive chairman in January, the Swedish music streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs.
Ek, who has served on Spotify's board since 2008, will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role.
Here are five key facts about Spotify's new co-CEOs:
GUSTAV SODERSTROM
* Soderstrom holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and data communications from Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
* In 2003, he founded Kenet Works, a company that made community software for mobile phones and served as its CEO until it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006.
* Before joining Spotify in 2009, Soderstrom was the director of product and business development for Yahoo! Mobile.
* He is also a startup seed investor and the founder of 13th Lab, which developed software enabling cameras to map and understand real-world spaces in 3D; 13th Lab was acquired by Facebook's Oculus in December 2014.
* In his nearly 17-year career at Spotify, Soderstrom has held several leadership roles, most recently as chief product and technology officer overseeing global tech strategy and product development.
ALEX NORSTROM
* Norstrom holds a Master of Science degree in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.
* He joined Spotify in 2011, after serving as chief new business officer at King.com, the company behind Candy Crush.
* Norstrom also served on the board of fintech company Circle from 2016 through December 2019.
* Over his more than 14 years at Spotify, he has held various leadership roles, most recently chief business officer, managing subscriber and advertising businesses, as well as music, podcast, and audiobook operations.
* His experience also includes marketing, global markets, partnerships, licensing, payments and customer service.
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru)
A co-CEO is a title given to two individuals who share the responsibilities and authority of a Chief Executive Officer, typically in a company or organization.
Capital allocation refers to the process of deciding how to distribute financial resources among various projects or investments to maximize returns.
A Master of Science (MSc) degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last two years, focusing on scientific and technical subjects.
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