Nordic M&A and Private Equity Forum

Carl Bildt Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sweden (2006-2014)

Carl Bildt has served as both Prime Minister (1991-1994) and Foreign Minister (2006-2014) of Sweden.

During the first period his government initiated major liberal economic reforms, as well as negotiated and signed membership agreement with the European Union. The reform period in the early and mid-1990's is generally seen as having pave the way for the successful growth decades that followed.

Subsequently he served in international functions with the EU and UN, primarily related to the conflicts in the Balkans. He was Co-Chairman of the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia and become the first High Representative in the country. Later, he was the Special Envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the region.

Carl Bildt was an early advocate of the new ICT technologies. An 1994 email exchange between him and President Clinton was the first between heads of state/governments.

After stepping down as leader of the Moderate Party of Sweden in 1999 and leaving Parliament in 2000 he was also engaged in corporate boards in Sweden and the US as well as different international think-tanks.

Returning as Foreign Minister of Sweden in 2006, he come to be seen as one of the most prominent and vocal of European foreign ministers during those years. He was one of the initiators of EU:s Eastern Partnership, and pushed the EU forward also on issues of the Middle East.

Currently he is Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, contributing columnist to Washington Post as well as monthly columnist for Project Syndicate. He recently chaired the Global Commission on Internet Governance.

He serves as one of the Senior Advisors to the Wallenberg Foundations in Sweden and is on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation in the US.

@carlbildt has continued to push the use of social media also in international diplomacy

Michel Annink Regional Director Hampleton Partners

Michel Annink is Regional Director Nordics at Hampleton Partners, a leading European-based advisory firm specialized in Merger &  Acquisition and corporate finance advisory services to owners of technology  companies. Educated at Utrecht, Stanford and Harvard University, Michel is  passionate about technology disruptions and their potential to transform  businesses and society.

Prior to joining the Hampleton team in 2018, Michel held  multiple senior executive leadership positions at Microsoft Corporation, Salesforce and NEVS.

Ola Bååth Head of M&A and Expansion Nordic Camping & Resort

Experienced M&A professional currently serving as Head of M&A and Expansion at Nordic Camping & Resort, the largest camp site owner and operator in the Nordics and owned by private equity fund Norvestor VII L.P. Previous experience include investment and M&A related positions in Wallenberg related companies such as Investor AB and Electrolux. Educated at Copenhagen Business School and Universität St Gallen with a Msc. in Finance and Economics.

Thomas Blomqvist Partner Axcel

Thomas Blomqvist has been in Nordic private equity for over eleven years, since 2016 with Axcel and before that with Riverside. Prior to that, Thomas worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan in London. Thomas holds an MSc in Finance and International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics and an MBA from INSEAD.

Anders Borg Managing Director, Private Equity KKR

Anders Borg leads KKR’s activities in the Nordic region and has been involved in the investments of Ambea, Aleris, Solhaga Gruppen, Mehilainen, Mediverkko, Mainio Vire, Valinge Innovation, Visma, Economics, and Bluegarden. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Borg was a partner at TDR Capital, a European Private Equity firm. Before TDR Capital, Mr. Borg worked for Bain & Company in Stockholm and New York, and Nestle in Switzerland. Mr. Borg is a Swedish national and holds an M.Sc in Physics from ETH Zurich and Chalmers University of Technology.

Malin Carlström SVP Northern Europe Investments ABB Technology Ventures

Malin Carlström is Senior Vice President at ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Malin covers Northern Europe and scouts for investment opportunities in companies that are relevant to all of ABB’s industry segments, targeting e.g. Industry 4.0, robotics, drones, industrial IoT, AI/machine learning, cybersecurity, electrical vehicles and autonomy applications. Before joining ATV, Malin spent thirteen consecutive years as an investor in the Nordic Venture Capital market within a wide array of sectors, including cleantech, fintech, legaltech, marketplaces and edtech. Additionally, Malin is an active advisor and board member of a handful startups in the Stockholm region.

Malin holds degrees from Chalmers University of Technology (MSc Mechanical Engineering – Energy Technology) and University of Kent (Master of Business Administration) and has completed an executive education in Corporate Finance at Stockholm School of Economics.

Nikolai I. K. Djupesland Managing Director, M&A RiskPoint

Nikolai I. K. Djupesland is the Managing Director for  RiskPoint M&A globally. He joined RiskPoint in 2013, initially working with  D&O/SOLI before joining the M&A team. Nikolai holds an LL.M from the  University of Oslo and a BSc in Business and Economics from BI Norwegian  Business School. Previously, Nikolai was Head of M&A, Nordics.

Magnus Ericson Director and Head of Nordic ECM Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Magnus Ericson is a Director and Head of Nordic Equity Capital Markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Based in Stockholm, where he is responsible for managing and building out the Nordic Equity Capital Market business. Magnus has over 15 years’ in the industry and has worked with Nordic blue-chip IPOs such as Terveystalo, Dometic, Medicover, Bravida, Academedia and Scandic. In addition, he has worked for all the major Nordic institutional investors, including AMFs and Alectas private investments in Anticimex and Spotify.

Prior to joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch in August 2018, Magnus worked as a Director within Equity Capital Markets at SEB. Previous to SEB, Magnus worked as an Investment Director within the Private Equity team at the Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund and served as board member in the Swedish high-tech company Tobii (TOBII).

Magnus has a Master of Economics degree from the University of Lund, Sweden. Also from the University of Lund, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in statistics and a Diploma degree in business. Magnus also studied at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jens Festervoll Senior Advisor Corporate Innovation and Corporate Liaison for Techstars Energy Equinor

Jens Festervoll has 18 years of experience in the energy sector as a consultant and professional across the energy value chain, primarily in oil and gas. He is a Senior Advisor in Corporate Innovation and Equinor’s Corporate Liaison for Techstars Energy. Previously he has worked as a Programme Manager when Equinor’s Digital Center of Excellence was established and Vice President for Corporate Strategy. In addition he has held a number of positions from gas trading, business development and analysis in Norsk Hydro and Statoil. Festervoll has a keen interest in innovation, digitalization and change management. He holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Oslo and University of Essex. Festervoll sits on the Board of Subsea Valley, a Norwegian Centre of Expertise technology cluster.

Thomas Fossum Deals Practice Leader, Sweden PwC

Thomas is a member of PwC Sweden's leadership team, responsible for Deals Services, the largest provider of transaction services, M&A, valuation & financial modelling, carveouts & merger integrations, deal strategy, restructuring, and M&A Tax and Legal, in the Nordics.

Having planned and executed post merger integrations and carve-outs for almost 20 years, Thomas has extensive experience from M&A driven transformations, often with significant growth ambitions, structural changes and cost synergies capturing.

Most of Thomas’ client engagements are in a multi-functional and multi-national setting, making the ability to prioritise and coordinate across often conflicting needs, national legislation and cultural differences an imperative. Recurring clients include large Nordic corporates and Private Equity companies.

Thomas holds a Diplom-Kaufmann degree from the University of Mannheim, Germany. A native Norwegian, he speaks English, German, and Scandinavian.

Olof Hernell Chief Digital Officer EQT Partners

Mr Olof Hernell joined EQT in june 2015 as Chief Digital Officer (CDO).

Olof Hernell heads the digital team at EQT, which besides working with digital business development of the EQT portfolio companies, also looks after teams for internal IT, Engineering and EQT:s AI Platform Motherbain.

Coming from a Google background, he was Head of Android and Chrome Hardware for Google Nordics until June 2015 and prior to that Head of Enterprise, Google Sweden. Olof started his career developing algorithms for computational fluid dynamics and have throughout his career been on the barricades evangelizing cloud technology, AI and consumerization of IT. 

Olof holds a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics and Chemical Engineering from Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

Thomas Johansen CFO Netcompany

Mr. Johansen (born 1970, Danish nationality) has been CFO of Netcompany since June 2017 when he was hired to head the IPO of the company. Mr Johansen was prior to joining Netcompany the CFO and a member of the executive management in Simcorp A/S where he served in that role for 6 years. He has vast experience in the topics of financial management and reporting as well as extensive equity capital market knowledge and Investor Relations experience from his numerous meetings with investors and potential shareholders in both Netcompany and Simcorp. Mr Johansen began his carrreer at Arthur Andersen as an accountant and had subsequently various leadership roles within the finance and controlling areas in  Novo Nordisk, Danske Bank, SAS Institute and Ikano (in Sweden). He holds a MSc in auditing and accounting from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and a MBA in general management from Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands.

David Lillo Practice Leader, Private Equity and M&A Nordics Marsh

David is the Practice Leader for Marsh’s Nordic Private Equity and M&A team with base in Stockholm. He joined Marsh in 2014 having worked as Investment Associate for a leading Private Equity firm based in the Middle East. David is specialized in M&A insurance products and advises on and places both W&I- and contingent/specific risk insurance policies. David has also worked as an M&A Associate in Stockholm for a leading international law firm. He holds an MBA from IE Business School and an LL.M. from Uppsala University.

Peter Lindell Partner Brunswick Group

Peter advises on corporate communications and investor relations, as well as on projects such as IPOs, crisis and M&A communications. Peter is part of the financial, private equity and TMT sector teams.

Peter joined Brunswick in 2010 and has 16 years of experience of advising boards, management and politicians on strategy, corporate communications and finance. He spent three years as head of corporate governance at AMF Pension responsible for ownership issues and AMF’s work on nominating committees. He spent six years as a senior investment manager at the Ministry of Industry responsible for, and serving on the Board of Directors of, several state-controlled companies. Peter has worked on IPO:s of for example Com Hem and Nordax, EQT:s acquisition of IFS, the sale of Norrporten to Castellum and assisted clients such as Klarna, Nordea, Investor, Mölnlycke & SAS on a wide number of communications issues.

Sofia Lönnkvist Deal Analytics and Modelling Leader PwC

Sofia is a Director and head of the Deals Analytics and Modelling team within PwC Sweden. She has more than 10 years’ experience from advising on valuations, financial analysis, modelling and analytics in deal processes.

Sofia help clients confidently make some of the most complex deals decisions based on data-driven insights, focusing on creating positive results for clients through complex acquisitions, divestitures, and other ventures and bringing the right insight, at the right time for the right deal.

Rasmus Molander Partner Adelis Equity Partners

Rasmus is a Partner at Adelis Equity Partners. Prior to joining Adelis, Rasmus worked as an Investment Executive at Permira where he worked as a member of the Healthcare and Nordic teams. Prior to Permira, Rasmus worked at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) serving healthcare clients globally and Nordic clients within several sectors. Rasmus is the Chairman of the Board of Dayton Group as well as a member of the Board of SSI Diagnostica, Quattro Mikenti Group, Puuilo and Datacenter Finland. He has previously been Chairman of the Board of Med Group and a member of the Board / deal team of e.g. NGI and Pharmaq.

Education:

MBA, Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar), Boston and MSc, Helsinki University of Technology / Boston University

Jan Olsson CEO Nordic Region Deutsche Bank

Jan is the CEO of the Nordic Region. He joined Deutsche Bank in 1988 and has worked in mainstream M&A execution and structured finance, and since 1996 in Corporate Finance.

Based in London, Jan covers some of our largest corporates and financial institutions in the Nordic region. He has been involved in many high profile M&A transactions, IPO’s and capital raisings in the Nordic region, where Deutsche Bank has a very strong presence. 

Jan is also Chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in London, a Board member of the Swedish Bankers’ Association, and Chairman of the Foreign Bankers’ Association in Stockholm.

Jan received an MBA from Wharton, a MA from the University of Pennsylvania where he also attended the Lauder Institute, a BA from Pomona College and a Graduate Diploma from the London School of Economics.

Kristina Patek Head of M&A Tieto

Kristina is Head of M&A at the Tieto Corporation. Tieto is the largest Nordic IT software and services company with operations in more than 20 countries, with a total turnover around EUR 1.5 billion and a current market cap of EUR ~2 billion. Prior to joining Tieto, Kristina was partner and investment director at Scope Capital for 7 years, advisor to the Nordic private equity funds Scope Growth II and III, that invests in small- medium sized companies originating in the Nordic region. Before Scope, Kristina has worked as investment manager at the listed private equity company Ratos, as CEO of Cell Innovation, a venture capital division of Cell Network, and as a strategy consultant at Accenture.

Kristina is a non-executive director of the Board of Didner & Gerge Fonder, Bilprovningen, Avega Group and Emric.

Education: MSc in Business Studies and Economics at Uppsala University and an MBA from Aston Business School, UK.

Petri Rouvinen Senior Economist Avance

Petri Rouvinen, Ph.D. (Econ.), became Avance Attorneys' Senior Economist in January 2019. Prior to joining Avance, he has been Research Director of ETLA, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.

For more than twenty years, Petri has taken part in consulting and research supporting enterprise, entrepreneurship, innovation, and science policies in Finland. For nearly two decades until the end of 2018, he represented Finland in the global competitiveness programs of IMD and the World Economic Forum. He has also been engaged in several international efforts at the EU, the OECD, and the World Bank.

At Avance, Petri provides strategic economic consultancy for both businesses and public sector clients. His services include industry and market analysis, policy support, and risk management, in particular in the context of transactional settings. Petri also works closely with Avance's competition lawyers in merger control, antitrust enforcement and state aid proceedings.

Petri earned his doctorate in economics, majoring in industrial organization, from Vanderbilt University (USA) in 2000. He has published twenty-five scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals and is the author or editor of over twenty books.

Øystein Sandnes Chief Digital Officer Verdane

Øystein Sandnes (Chief Digital Officer) joined Verdane Advisors in 2017 from Bergans of Norway where he held the position of Chief Information Officer. During his 10 years at Bergans he worked with IT, people and processes to enable Bergan’s growth and expansion into the US, Russia and Germany.

At Verdane, Øystein works closely with the business services, investment teams and with portfolio companies to ensure the continuous digital development and optimization of the businesses.

Education : Øystein holds a Masters in Informatics from University of Oslo, and an Executive MBA from Norwegian School of Management (BI).

Anders Thulin Head of Digital Practice Triton Partners

Anders is leading the Digital Practice. He joined from Ericsson, where he was Senior Vice President and CIO and Chairman of the LatAm Region. As former Senior Partner and Director of McKinsey & Company, he led the global High Tech and Mobile Telecom Practice and the European Private Equity Practice. Anders has a strong track record in implementing business excellence in industrial, service and tech companies and extensive experience in driving large transformation programs including digitalization. Anders holds a Master in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics, including MBA studies at the Western University, Ivey Business School, Canada.

Timo Tirkkonen Co-Founder & Partner Inventure

Timo is a Co-Founder & Partner of Inventure. His areas of interest lie within enterprise software, future connectivity, cybersecurity and gaming. At Inventure, Timo focuses on the investment strategy and portfolio value creation. Timo is actively involved in crafting product and partnership strategies of our portfolio companies. He works closely with AImotive, Detectify, Now Interact, Glimr, Merus Power, and Spectral Engines. Previously, Timo acted as a private investor with Innocap Oy. Having started his career in the telecom sector with Nokia and Sonera, Timo has over 21 years of experience in coaching, managing and internationalizing early-stage companies.

Kasper Viio Corporate Development Executive Acuris

Kasper works as a Corporate Development Executive at Acuris, focused on both organic- and acquisitive growth initiatives across the company’s divisions.

He joined Mergermarket’s editorial team at the end of 2006 to cover the Nordic markets, moving up to become global assistant editor for the product before shifting to strategy related roles in 2013. To keep abreast of developments, Kasper still occasionally lends his byline to various editorial- and events teams within the Acuris suite.

Outside of Acuris, Kasper advises a London based venture capital firm on investment strategy and investor relations. In his spare time, he is working hard to convince his young daughter on the merits of downhill skiing, and is training for his first triathlon.

Antti Vuolli Head of New Digital Business Stora Enso

Antti Vuolli is Head of New Digital Business at  Stora Enso Digitalisation Unit. Antti focuses on accelerating the creation of  new digitally enabled businesses via corporate startup approach as well as  co-creating with startups. Stora Enso taps in to startup ecosystem via two  programs 1) Stora Enso Accelerator and 2) Combient Foundry venture client  program.  

Prior to joining Stora Enso, Antti spent 7  years at Ixonos (Now Digitalist Group) heading Industrial Internet, IoT, Smart  Devices services businesses. A fair bit of time went to consulting companies in  multiple sectors how to benefit from rapid rise of IoT and digitalization. He  has also spent 13 years at Nokia Networks in the telecom networks management  business. Throughout his career, Antti has always been ramping up and scaling  new businesses. Main expertise covers product management, leading sales,  ramping up new businesses as well as running business areas.  

Philip Whitchelo Vice President Intralinks

Philip is responsible for corporate development, M&A and growth opportunities at Intralinks, a financial technology provider for the global dealmaking, private equity and capital markets communities. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Finance at Cass Business School, City, University of London and is also a member of the Advisory Board of the M&A Research Centre at Cass. Philip joined Intralinks in 2010 and has 25 years’ experience of working in M&A, corporate development and corporate finance. He began his career at Deloitte in London and has also worked in M&A advisory at NatWest Markets and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in corporate finance for The Rank Group plc, as well as founding an M&A consulting firm. Philip holds postgraduate degrees in Finance and Computer Science from the University of London.

Tim Wright Partner, Head of European Private Equity DLA Piper

Tim Wright heads up the European Private Equity group and has been specialising in private equity for over 20 years. He acts for private equity sponsors, management teams and corporates on a variety of UK and cross-border private equity backed buyouts and corporate M&A.