Finn

"When Finn, due to his high level of ambition and initial self-overestimation, tried to outmaneuver the skilled financial director Lennart Ohlsson to take over the position himself, Hans had had enough. Ohlsson’s closest man, the Swiss Felix Seiler, immediately announced that if Finn took over, he intended to leave with immediate effect. Based on Hans’ experiences as CEO and the leadership style he had developed, he was aware that an owning family to an innovative global conglomerate is utterly dependent on various key personnel. Hans fired Finn, but did it without first speaking with Gad, which did not exactly facilitate their relationship. Between 1990 and 1993, Finn instead worked as a controller in the company Atlas Copco."

"During the summer of 1995, the Swiss Bank Corporation reviewed its operations, and by August their appraisal was complete. According to the Financial Times, it concluded at nearly 81 billion kronor. When the appraisal was presented to the brothers, Gad suddenly said: “Then I’ll buy.” Gad’s three children, Kirsten, Finn, and Jörn, who had been informed about what was happening, had made it clear to their father that they wanted to take over. Hans, who was completely unprepared, was very surprised but said that saying no was impossible according to him. The transaction was relatively simple, the foundation controlled by the Gad branch transferred 40.4 billion kronor to Hans’ foundation."

"25 years after Gads family, with Kirsten, Jörn, and Finn, took over, it appears that the sale was a successful transaction, from Tetra Laval’s perspective. The magazine Affärsvärlden estimated that the corporate group had a turnover of 54 billion kronor at the time of acquisition. The same source believed that turnover had doubled 15 years later. Growth has since increased further to a turnover of around 140 billion in 2019."

"Even though Kirsten, Finn, and Jörn have not had an easy and unproblematic journey as owners, they seem to have complemented each other well. Together, they have had control over the conglomerate but also an overview of the market and the external world to function in the owner role. This dynamic capacity of the owner team has been absolutely necessary to maintain the technological leadership within the industry together with various management groups within the Tetra conglomerate."

"The owning family, with Kirsten, Finn, and Jörn, governed the conglomerate primarily by serving on the board of the parent company Tetra Laval Group. The board functioned as the board for all three companies in the group: Tetra Pak, DeLaval, and Sidel. The CEO of Tetra Pak, Dennis Jönsson, described the family’s governance as involving board meetings every quarter and additional contact via phone or email once a month."