Lars Jacobsson (born May 11, 1965) is a Swedish

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, and conservationist.

Career

Jacobsson initially worked in the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of hydrocarbon exploration, exploration, extraction of petroleum, extraction, oil refinery, refining, Petroleum transport, transportation (of ...

, where he was involved in starting up storage, trading and shipping companies, as well as being the

of the oil

Contango Contango is a situation where the futures price (or forward price) of a commodity is higher than the ''expected'' spot price of the contract at maturity. In a contango situation, arbitrageurs or speculators are "willing to pay more owfor a comm ...

market in the early 1990s. In early 2000s he sold his oil related businesses. Since 2005, he started up two solar energy companies. In 2010, Jacobsson founded

United Sun Systems International Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of De ...

, a London-based company which develops

solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an ...

technology.

Philanthropy

Together with his wife

Ragnhild Jacobsson Ragnhild Jacobsson (born 15 July 1966) is a Norwegian entrepreneur, social worker, and environmental activist. Personal life Jacobsson is married to Lars Valentin Jacobsson and the couple supports animal projects globally. Philanthropy R ...

, he founded The Perfect World Foundation, a non-profit and independent Swedish based organisation that promotes conservation. In 2014 the organisation held the fundraising gala and wildlife and environmental conference in favour of the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

rhinos A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

and

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

s, with participants from all over the world. Jacobbson and his wife are ambassadors at the London-based organisation

Elephant Family Elephant Family is an international NGO dedicated to protecting the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild. In the last fifty years their population has roughly halved and 90% of their habitat has disappeared. Poaching, a growing skin tra ...

to save the

asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus '' Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in ...

s. On June 7, 2015 at a private event in Stockholm, Jacobsson and his wife, on behalf of The Perfect World Foundation, honored

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best kn ...

with "The Fragile Rhino" prize along with naming her Conservationist of the Year for 2015. In September 2016, they organised a fundraising event "Save The Elephant", a ball with participants from all over the world. During the event,

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...

, behind the largest ivory burning ever in Kenya, was awarded "The Conservationist of the Year 2016" by the organisation's new ambassador,

Sarah, Duchess of York Sarah, Duchess of York (born Sarah Margaret Ferguson; 15 October 1959), also known by the nickname Fergie, is a member of the British royal family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the younger brother of King Charles II ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsson, Lars Valentin 1965 births Living people Swedish businesspeople Swedish philanthropists