Ruben, Gad and Hans Rausing with the first Tetra Pak filling machine

Gad Rausing (19 May 1922 – 28 January 2000) was a Swedish industrialist and archaeologist. Together with his brother

Hans Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

he inherited the Swedish packaging company Tetra Pak, founded by their father Ruben Rausing and by 2011 the largest food packaging company in the world by sales. In 1995 Rausing bought out his brother's interest in the company in what was at the time the most extensive private buyout in Europe.Tetra Pak International S.A.
Frederick C. Ingram in ''The Gale Directory of Company Histories'', retrieved 4 November 2011 Rausing had a lifelong passion for archaeology and the humanities and was an accomplished scholar, earning his PhD from the University of Lund in 1967 with a dissertation on Scandinavian pre-historic bows and arrow-heads."Gad Rausing, 77, Swedish Innovator of Beverage Containers"
''The New York Times'', 8 February 2000 In addition to his work as deputy managing director at Tetra Pak he was a frequent lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Bromma, outside of Stockholm, in 1922 as the eldest son of industrialist Ruben Rausing and his wife Elisabeth (née Varenius). He had two younger brothers,

and Sven.

Career

Rausing studied chemistry at the University of Lund and began his career as the head of the research laboratory at Åkerlund & Rausing, his father's company, where he was in charge of the team developing suitable materials for the newly invented tetrahedron package. The tetrahedron subsequently became the central product of Tetra Pak, which was founded in 1951 as a subsidiary to Åkerlund & Rausing. Rausing joined Tetra Pak as deputy managing director in 1954. Over the years the company evolved from a small family business with six full-time employees, in 1954, into a multi-national corporation with over 20,000 employees (2011), a development much of which has been credited to the leadership of Rausing and his brother throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The great success of the business was largely the result of their development of aseptic packaging technology, developed in the 1950s and early 1960s and later called the most important food packaging innovation of the 20th century. Rausing had a parallel career as a scholar in pre-historic Scandinavian archaeology and was a Reader at the Institute of Archaeology at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion

Patronage

Rausing's passion for the humanities led to his frequent sponsoring of various research projects, among others the excavation of the 10th Century Viking trading town of

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö, Ekerö, Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of the Europ ...

outside Stockholm. Rausing's foundation, The Birgit and Gad Rausing Foundation, awards grants to research within the humanities and supports several important institutions, among others the Lund and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

universities. In 2002, the

Gad Rausing Prize for Outstanding Humanistic Research Gad or GAD may refer to: Government and politics * General Administration Department, of Burma's Ministry of Home Affairs * Government Actuary's Department, of the Government of the United Kingdom * Grand Alliance for Democracy, a Philippine p ...

was instituted by Rausing's three children in memory of their father at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, where Gad Rausing was a member during his lifetime. Rausing became

Doctor Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...

at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1983.

Gad and Birgit Rausing Library

The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) library has been renamed as Gad & Birgit Rausing Library to acknowledge the donation provided by the Rausing family to construct the library building. Dennis Jönsson, the CEO of Tetra Pak, inaugurated the library on 17 March 2011, noting that the Rausing family funds were utilized for educational purposes and unveiled a plaque commemorating the Rausing family's donation.

Personal life

Gad Rausing was married to

Birgit Rausing Birgit Rausing (born 26 October 1924) is a Swedish art historian, philanthropist, a former billionaire heiress and the widow of Gad Rausing (1922–2000). Biography She is the daughter of Swedish landscape painter Henry Mayne (1891–1975). In 1 ...

and had three children,

Finn The word Finn (''pl.'' Finns) usually refers to a member of the majority Balto-Finnic ethnic group of Finland, or to a person from Finland. Finn may also refer to: Places * Finn Lake, Minnesota, United States * Finn Township, Logan County, Nor ...

, Jörn and Kirsten.

Legacy

The Swedish Sea Rescue Society has a class of rescue vessels where the lead ship Gad Rausing was built in 2002 after a large donation from the Tetra Laval group.

References

Selected bibliography

*Rausing, Gad, ''China and Europe: some notes on communications in early times'', Lund: Tetra Pak International, 1996 *Rausing, Gad, ''Prehistoric boats and ships of northwestern Europe: some reflections'', Malmö: Liber Förlag/Gleerup, 1984 *Rausing, Gad, ''Ecology, economy and man'', Malmö: Liber Läromedel/Gleerup, 1981 *Rausing, Gad, ''The bow: some notes on its origin and development'', Lund: Gleerups, 1967 *Rausing, Gad, ''Lars Lawskis vapensamling'', Norrköping: Norrköpings museum, 1960

External links

Tetra Pak HomepageThe Birgit and Gad Rausing FoundationThe Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquity
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rausing, Gad 1922 births 2000 deaths Lund University alumni 20th-century Swedish businesspeople Gad Swedish industrialists