Meet our LUMA

What sealed the deal on Kinnevik over anything else you were considering?

I actually got this question during the interview, and I remember that I replied with - why would I pick anything else? It is one of the oldest and most well-known management trainee programs in Sweden.

That was the quick answer. The fuller one starts with how much Kinnevik invests into the LUMA role. No two LUMA years look the same, and you get to shape yours around what you bring, regardless you always get a packed year with learnings and experiences. My background in strategic communication, for instance, means I am closely involved in our Q communication. The second was the variety. In a matter of weeks you can go from learning how an investment process works to project-leading a recruitment. Few graduate roles combine that breadth with this much proximity to senior leaders, and it was clear it would be a year I enjoyed.

Finally, there is the brand. Kinnevik has been part of Swedish business life for 90 years, long enough that most Swedes have an opinion about it, and there is something particular about joining a company with that kind of place in the country's history. What sealed it, though, was the LUMA network. Former LUMAs talk about their year with real warmth, some of them decades later, and that told me most of what I needed to know.

Can you share a bit about your background and previous experiences that led you here?

I am originally from Helsingborg in Skåne, with a fairly international upbringing that included living in India as a child. I did both my BSc and MSc at the Stockholm School of Economics, with an internship in Uganda along the way, and I have also spent time at Georgetown University and the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. As the range of my experiences maybe signals, I’m a very curious person that loves to try new things, which is also what draws me to the LUMA role.

At 22, I was "CEO for One Month" at the Adecco Group, first in Stockholm and then at their headquarters in Zurich, shadowing the executive team. It taught me something I have carried into this role: the value of being both a trainee and someone who is allowed to question the way things are done.

What draws me to investing is the premise underneath it: that you believe in a company enough to back it with your own capital. Next year, I will perform a secondment at one of our portfolio companies. So far I have only seen our companies from the investor's chair, and I would like the founder's view of the same picture: what they are weighing, what a quarter looks like from inside the business, and where an owner is genuinely useful to them. Coming back with that perspective should make me better at the work I do here.

Kinnevik is in the middle of a transition itself, what's it actually like to be inside that, rather than reading about it from the outside?

Kinnevik has reinvented itself many times over 90 years, but rarely as visibly as now, and being a LUMA during it is a privilege. There is a difference between reading that a company is setting the foundations for a new era and actually sitting in the room while the choices are made. Being part of that feels big, because we are setting the foundations for a new era rather than adjusting the current one. Alongside my colleagues, I have a chance to make more of a mark than I would have expected this early in a career.

What has struck me most is how far into the high-level conversations I have been invited, and how much genuine ownership comes with that. Already on my second day I was asked to hire our first AI lead. Running that process over the summer, from brief to signed contract, taught me more than any onboarding could have.

What's one thing you've learned about onboarding a new CEO that you didn't expect and how the LUMA role played any part in helping that transition?

Onboarding a CEO is not something that I ever thought I would get to be a part of, and it's been such a valuable learning experience. I started in the middle of June and worked with our interim CEO (and board member) Rubin Ritter. One of the focus areas for the summer was to create an onboarding package for Helena. Coincidentally, creating this onboarding package was an excellent “Kinnevik crash course” for me as well. I ended up having to order the largest folder I have ever seen (80 mm!) to be able to fit a printed version of our portfolio summary.

Mostly I have tried to be a source of context. The thing I did not expect to learn is that an incoming CEO is also a new employee, so the briefing cannot only cover the business. The softer, people side of an organisation matters just as much, and it is harder to write down.

A year from now, what do you want to be able to say about yourself that you can't say today? 

That I understand the investment process practically rather than theoretically, having worked properly alongside the investment team, and that I have completed a secondment at one of our companies to get real operational experience. I would also like sharper time and project management, both sit at the centre of keeping up in the LUMA role!

And two concrete things: that I have recruited the next LUMA, with applications launching soon, and that I hosted a Young Talents Program in January that the young leaders across our portfolio enjoyed.