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Danish billionaire Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen disclosed his 37-year-old son, Thomas, will succeed him as vice chairman of toy maker Lego A/S.

Thomas Kirk Kristiansen is taking responsibility for Lego after its global expansion reaped a record $1.39 billion profit last year. Lego toys are sold in more than 140 countries.

His challenges include maintaining growth even as the company seeks an alternative to the oil-based plastic currently used to make billions of toy bricks each year. He also wants to promote the idea that Lego is educational as well as fun.

"My father always said that we are more than just a toy" business, the younger Mr. Kirk Kristiansen said in an interview on Monday, after presenting his version of a business card—a stubbly, brown-haired Lego man with his email address and telephone number on its back. "We truly believe that the physical building, construction play is actually developing children in many, many ways into becoming better-equipped for whatever future may come."

The appointment is the latest step in a succession process that started in 2004 when his 68-year-old father stepped down as Lego's chief executive to make way for the first nonfamily member to hold the role. Then in 2007, the senior Mr. Kirk Kristiansen bought his sister's interests in the company, concentrating ownership of the company with himself and his three children.

Thomas Kirk Kristiansen also will replace his father as chairman of the Lego Foundation, which owns 25% of the company. His father remains chairman of Kirkbi A/S, the family holding company, which owns the other 75% of Lego. Kirkbi is jointly owned by Thomas, his two sisters and his father.

"Thomas is the holder of the family's values," said Marianne Lewis, dean of Cass Business School in London, who has researched the company. "They have always stressed that these [blocks] aren't just toys to play with but to build and develop children with."

The family has decided that one person in each generation will be selected as the "most active owner," overseeing relations among the family, the company and the foundation. There currently are six members—Thomas's daughter and her five female cousins—in the youngest generation.

The CEO role "is not the role that we are going to play in the future," Thomas said.

As a child, Thomas said he particularly enjoyed playing with the company's pirate and space-themed Lego sets. Even then, he said he knew he wouldn't become CEO and he thought about finding work outside the company. In the early 2000s, when Thomas was in his 20s, the company suffered a couple of years of losses, which drew his interest back to the company.

"That got my attention," Thomas said. "I could definitely see on my father's face that it was tough times back then, and that sort of got me curious and wanting to know more."

At one point Lego, was approached by a private-equity firm that wanted to buy the company, the older Mr. Kirk Kristiansen said. He refused, and the company has returned to profit by focusing on costs and expanding its product range, including partnerships with companies including Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros., which released The Lego Movie in 2014.

There could be a second movie, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said.

Thomas, the great-grandson of Lego's founder, said he sees himself as an ambassador and advocate for the company. Part of that role is carried out through the family foundation, which actively promotes to academic researchers, schools and governments world-wide the idea of "learning through play as the most effective means to provide children with quality-learning experiences," according to its website.

"It's not a purely philanthropic effort," the senior Mr. Kirk Kristiansen said. "It's a value that we believe in."

His son agrees.

"There are still so many children out there that do not get their hands on Lego bricks at all," he said. "So because of that you could easily argue that we need more bricks. You can never get too many bricks."

Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)

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