BUSINESSPEOPLE from Sweden

Top 8

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swedish Businesspeople of all time. This list of famous Swedish Businesspeople is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Ingvar Kamprad (1926 - 2018)

With an HPI of 75.76, Ingvar Kamprad is the most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 64 different languages on wikipedia.

Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (Swedish: [ˈɪ̌ŋːvar ˈkǎmːprad] ; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire business magnate best known for founding IKEA, a multinational retail company specialising in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.

2. Ludvig Nobel (1831 - 1888)

With an HPI of 57.78, Ludvig Nobel is the 2nd most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Ludvig Immanuel Nobel ( noh-BEL; Russian: Лю́двиг Эммануи́лович Нобе́ль, romanized: Ljúdvig Emmanuílovich Nobél'; Swedish: Ludvig Emmanuel Nobel [ˈlɵ̌dːvɪɡ nʊˈbɛlː]; 27 July 1831 – 12 April 1888) was a Swedish-Russian engineer, a noted businessman and a humanitarian. One of the most prominent members of the Nobel family, he was the son of Immanuel Nobel (also an engineering pioneer) and Andriette Nobel, and the older brother of Alfred Nobel (founder of the Nobel Prize). With his brother Robert, he operated Branobel, an oil company in Baku (now in Azerbaijan) which at one point produced 50% of the world's oil. He is credited with creating the Russian oil industry. Ludvig Nobel built the largest fortune of any of the Nobel brothers and was one of the world's richest men. Following the Bolshevik revolution, the communists confiscated the Nobel family's vast fortune in Russia.

3. Ivar Kreuger (1880 - 1932)

With an HPI of 56.10, Ivar Kreuger is the 3rd most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Ivar Kreuger (Swedish: [ˈǐːvar ˈkry̌ːɡɛr]; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. By aggressive investments and innovative financial instruments, he built a global match and financial empire. Between the two world wars, he negotiated match monopolies with European, Central American and South American governments, and finally controlled between two thirds and three quarters of worldwide match production, becoming known as the "Match King". Kreuger's financial empire has been described by one biographer as a Ponzi scheme, based on the supposedly fantastic profitability of his match monopolies. However, in a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid dividends from their own money or that of subsequent investors. Although Kreuger did this to some extent, he also controlled many legitimate and often very profitable businesses, and owned banks, real estate, a gold mine, and pulp and industrial companies, besides his many match companies. Many of them have survived to this day. Kreuger & Toll, for example, was composed of bona fide businesses, and there were others like it. Another biographer called Kreuger a "genius and swindler", and John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that he was the "Leonardo of larcenists". Kreuger's financial empire collapsed during the Great Depression. The Price Waterhouse autopsy of his financial empire stated: "The manipulations were so childish that anyone with but a rudimentary knowledge of bookkeeping could see the books were falsified." In March 1932, he was found dead in the bedroom of his flat in Paris. The police concluded that he had committed suicide, but decades later, his brother Torsten claimed that he had been murdered, which spawned some controversial literature on the subject.

4. Stefan Persson (b. 1947)

With an HPI of 53.65, Stefan Persson is the 4th most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Carl Stefan Erling Persson (Swedish: [ˈstěːfan ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn]; born 4 October 1947) is a Swedish billionaire businessman. In March 2013, Forbes reported Persson's net worth as $28 billion making him the richest of Sweden's 12 billionaires and the 17th richest person in the world; he has since dropped to number 50. Persson was the chairman of fashion company H&M until May 2020, when he was succeeded by his son. He remains the company's largest shareholder, owning a 36% stake. The company was founded by his father Erling Persson in 1947. Persson took over H&M from his father in 1982 and served as its manager until 1998. He also owns a substantial stake in the Swedish technology company Hexagon AB. Through his privately held real estate company Ramsbury Invest, Persson owns a large number of properties in London, Paris and Stockholm. He is the sole director of Ramsbury Estates Limited, which farms 19,000 acres (7,700 ha) in the English counties of Wiltshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, centred on the village of Ramsbury in Wiltshire. Since Persson acquired the business in 1997, it has bought the land of several neighbouring estates including Littlecote and Hungerford Park. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Persson had a net worth of US$21.2 billion in January 2022, making him the 89th richest person in the world at the time.

5. Anders Frisk (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 49.15, Anders Frisk is the 5th most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Anders Frisk (born 18 February 1963) is a Swedish insurance agent by trade and a former football referee. Frisk chose to go into early retirement from refereeing due to pressure from death threats made against him and his family. He is fluent in several languages including his native Swedish, English and German.

6. Christian von Koenigsegg (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 44.99, Christian von Koenigsegg is the 6th most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Christian Erland Harald von Koenigsegg (born July 2, 1972) is a Swedish automotive engineer and entrepreneur. He is a descendant of the House and lineage of the Koenigsegg, a noble family from Germany. He is the founder and CEO of the Swedish high-performance automobile manufacturer Koenigsegg Automotive. In 1994, Koenigsegg launched the "Koenigsegg project", which eventually became Koenigsegg Automotive. Together with designer David Crafoord, Koenigsegg created a design concept following his original sketches. The first prototype enabled the foundation of Koenigsegg Automotive. Koenigsegg and his wife, Halldóra, are leading the company.

7. Daniel Ek (b. 1983)

With an HPI of 42.09, Daniel Ek is the 7th most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Daniel Georg Ek (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈdɑ̂ːnɪɛl ˈjěːɔrj ěːk]; born 21 February 1983) is a Swedish businessman and technologist. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of music streaming service Spotify. As of May 2024, his net worth was estimated at $4.8 billion by Forbes.

8. Niklas Zennström (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 41.82, Niklas Zennström is the 8th most famous Swedish Businessperson.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Niklas Zennström (Swedish: [ˈnɪ̌kːlas ˈsɛ̂nːstrœm] ; born 16 February 1966) is a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. He is co-founder of the charity organization Zennström Philanthropies.