Bjorn Saven (born 1950) is a Swedish industrialist and investor. He is the founder and former chief executive of

IK Investment Partners IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. The firm is led Christopher Masek who has been the CEO since 2015. History IK Partners was founded under the nam ...

(formerly Industri Kapital) a leading European private equity firm focused on acquisitions across the Nordics, Benelux, Germany and France, with funds raised in excess of €14 billion.

Background

Saven was born in Stockholm. His father headed a constructions materials company. He and his wife Inger have three adult children.

Education

Saven holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from

Stockholm School of Economics The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along wit ...

1972 and an MBA from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

1976.

Career

Prior to founding IK Investment Partners in 1988 (within Enskilda Securities until 1993, part of the SEB Bank Group) Bjorn Saven held various positions at the American oil company

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

1972-1974 as well as the Swedish office and retail products group

Esselte Esselte is a manufacturer and marketer of office products and business supplies with subsidiaries in 25 countries and sales in over 120 countries. Esselte makes files, binders, folders, covers, staplers, letter trays and computer accessories under ...

1976-1988. At IK Partners, Bjorn Saven pioneered

Private Equity investments In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

in the Nordics and Continental Europe. He raised the first Private Equity fund in the Northern Europe, focusing mainly on investments in, and development of, mid-cap companies with a hands-on operating approach of working with portfolio businesses. He served as Chief Executive from 1989-2008 and Executive Chairman 2008 – 2011, Chairman from 2011 and emeritus since 2017. Bjorn Saven has also served as a non-executive director at the Nordic bank

Nordea Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive ...

, Swedish industrial group

Alfa Laval Alfa Laval AB is a Swedish company, founded in 1883 by Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm. The company, which started in providing centrifugal separation solutions for dairy (see Separator (milk)), now deals in the production of specialised produc ...

(Deputy Chairman), Swedish energy group

Vattenfall AB Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...

, Norwegian consumer goods group

Orkla ASA Orkla ASA is a Norwegian conglomerate operating in the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. At present, Orkla operates in the branded consumer goods, aluminium solutions and financial investment sectors. Orkla ASA is listed on the Os ...

, and Finnish industrial cranes manufacturer

Konecranes Konecranes Oyj (KCI Konecranes prior to 16 March 2007) is a Finland, Finnish company, headquartered in Hyvinkää, which specialises in the manufacture and service of crane (machine), cranes and lifting equipment as well as the service of machine ...

Oyj. Saven was chairman of th
British-Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm
for five years and is director of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the United Kingdom. He is a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which pro ...

where he served as deputy chairman 20011-2013. He is also a member of the Utrikespolitiska samfundet (The Swedish Society for International Affairs), a non-profit organisation and parent body o
Utrikespolitiska institutet
(The Swedish Institute of International Affairs).

Honours

* H.M. The King's Medal, Sweden (12th size w. the Seraphimer Ribbon) for services to industry (2008) * Knight Commander of the Order of Merit of Poland (2022) * Officier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, France (2021) * Knight 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (2007) *Commander of the Kingdom of Belgium (2012) *Commander of the White Rose of Finland (2022) and of the Order of the Lion (2008) * Patron of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2021) *Honorary Doctorates from Helsinki ( Hanken) (1999), Stockholm Schools of Economics (2011), and from the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University (2012) * Honorary Doctor and member of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; bg, Българска академия на науките, ''Balgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated ''БАН'') is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy ...

(2015) * Honorary fellow and MA at

Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Warrington in 1757 as a college for Unitarian students and moved to Oxford in 1893. It became a full college of th ...

(2017) and member of the Chancellor’s Court of Oxford University *Medal of Honour, Swedish-Finnish Culture Fund (2012) *Medaille du Bicentenaire,

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301� ...

(2017)

Philanthropy

* Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Chairman of the Investment Committee * Trustee of UK prenatal care charity Tommy’s * Member of the board of the Heart/Lung Foundation of Sweden

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saven, Bjorn Stockholm School of Economics alumni Harvard Business School alumni 1950 births Businesspeople from Stockholm Living people 20th-century Swedish businesspeople 21st-century Swedish businesspeople