Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester is stepping down to hand the reins to someone with more experience managing large companies.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Wester claims his departure from the role as Paradox CEO is due to the practical reality of running a hundreds-strong company. Last week marked his last in the position, succeeded by four-year board member Ebba Ljungerud.

"She's a better operational manager than I am, at almost everything," said Wester. "She's a very good manager, and I'm really not."

Ljungerud comes from a background in online gambling, as a three-year CCO of Kindred Group. With 1500 employees, she believes her experience will help Paradox as it continues to grow.

Ljungerud commended: "When you're 120 people you can talk to pretty much everyone. When you're 300 people, suddenly you have a lot more managers. And this is an industry that people join quite young, so maybe they haven't been a manager before.

"It's a lot about just practical things - how do we, as a group, run the company? I know quite a lot about that, and I've thought quite a lot about that, in my previous jobs. And I think Paradox needs it."

Wester added: "I've been a visionary for Paradox for quite some time, but it's not really enough when you're 300 people. It's really not. You need to be skilled in areas where I'm not really skilled.

"It's a great decision, but it took some time for me. Part of the CEO title is emotional as well, and it's hard to give away something you worked with for so long.

"But there are only two phases for a company: development or consolidation. And if you want to be rude you can call it stagnation instead of consolidation, because it's the same thing. I want Paradox to be a company in constant development."

Wester will now take on a role as executive chairman - but admits he doesn’t entirely know how his day-to-day will pan out from here-on.