Frederik Paulsen

"Every other year, Frederik Paulsen also finances the establishment of new fertility clinics in Russia. By both selling medication via Ferring and donating money to the development of the country’s fertility care, Paulsen hopes to help curb the drastically declining birth rate in the country."

"Frederik and Eva Paulsen were pioneers in developing and selling drugs based on peptide hormones, which are small proteins secreted into the bloodstream from the pituitary gland. Eva Paulsen had experience in the field through previous research assignments. She had experimented with peptide hormones during her time at Pharmacia and Organon in Stockholm. Frederik and Eva Paulsen were convinced that the natural origin of peptide hormones could provide a more suitable basis for drug development than the steroids other companies were working with in the 1950s. They acquired a house in Malmö where they established a research department. In 1961, the research team made a major breakthrough when they learned to produce the peptide hormones vasopressin, also called antidiuretic hormone (ADH), and oxytocin synthetically and on an industrial scale. Ferring was one of the first companies in the world to succeed in this. The pharmaceutical company intended to treat diabetes insipidus (DI), not diabetes mellitus, which is commonly referred to as sugar sickness. DI increases urine production, which can lead to dehydration and pose a life-threatening risk if not treated. The synthetically manufactured drugs had fewer side effects, and the company was no longer dependent on the supply of pig pituitaries. After nearly seven decades, it has proven that the investment was right. To this day, peptide hormones are used in several of Ferring’s drugs."

"During Frederik and Eva Paulsen’s time with the company, the business was established. Ferring developed, produced, and sold pharmaceuticals independently. Foreign expansion had begun, partly because Frederik Paulsen wanted to protect the family business from the Swedish state. The heavy tax burden and the ongoing discussion about nationalizing the pharmaceutical industry risked destroying everything the Paulsen family had built up. Frederik Paulsen was active in Ferring for nearly three decades, although he began to reduce his involvement with the company after his 60th birthday in 1969. During the 1970s, he gradually handed over responsibility to the then management. When Frederik Paulsen Jr joined Ferring in 1976, it opened the door for a possible generational shift, but from the start, it was not certain that it would be the youngest of six siblings who would take over Ferring. Neither for Frederik Paulsen Senior nor Junior. The founder was skeptical, and the son was reluctant. He expressed this in an interview with Veckans Affärer in 2013: “In the late 1960s when I was 17, my father asked me what I thought he should do with the company in the future. Then I replied: Give it to the employees. It was in the spirit of the times. I wasn’t at all interested in taking over then.”"

"“At Forbes, we speak with many billionaires about how they earn, spend, and give away their money. There is a particular kind of billionaire who uses part of their fortune on adventures and explorations. For example, I’m thinking of Richard Branson’s record-breaking hot air balloon journey from Morocco to Hawaii and Jeff Bezos’ deep-sea expedition to find the engine from the Apollo 11 space rocket,” writes Upbin in one of the few longer interviews conducted with Frederik Paulsen. Upbin argues that none of the world’s super-rich can match Frederik Paulsen’s level when it comes to exploration. Paulsen was in New York at the time to receive an honorary award from the prestigious and eccentric adventure club The Explorers Club, where he is a member. The culinary dinner at the Waldorf Astoria consisted of goat eye martini, pickled bull penis, and roasted cockroaches from Madagascar."

"Frederik Paulsen represents the foundation that owns Ferring. The company is essentially debt-free. Over the years, he has also initiated, spun off, and developed several other enterprises, including a diagnostics company, another for the manufacture of peptide hormones, and an offshore company. As the sole owner of these companies, the foundation has been able to receive significant dividends from Ferring and the other companies over the years. In this way, the capital in the foundation grows. The companies are controlled through various holding companies, and this structure limits tax costs at all stages. Frederik Paulsen is also involved in several projects requiring investments, including two vineyards in Georgia, which is said to be the cradle of wine, and a publishing company."

"Even his son Frederik Paulsen has continued working for the Ferrings in his philanthropic activities, which, along with adventurous polar expeditions, are what engage him most today. He has been doing this ever since Frederik Paulsen left the operational work behind in 1998. Paulsen is the only person in the world who has visited the Earth’s eight poles. He has climbed several of the world’s highest mountains, been to the “real” North Pole found at a depth of 4,000 meters below the sea surface, and, together with the pilot, was the first to fly over the Bering Strait between Asia and North America in an ultralight plane. On one occasion, the plane was thrown far off course by a strong gust of wind. It could have ended badly."

"As CEO, Frederik Paulsen was an innovator and forward-thinker. As owner and chairman of the board, it is his task to push the operational management at Ferring forward. Frederik Paulsen’s ideas about the development of the independent privately-owned pharmaceutical company have been a successful formula. In the early 1980s, Ferring was a small company with two sister companies, one hundred and twenty employees, and a turnover of about one hundred million kronor. Just over three decades later, Ferring is a global pharmaceutical group with operations in 56 countries and selling drugs in 110. In 2016, according to the company, Ferring had 6,000 employees and a turnover of 1.9 billion euros. The annual growth over the past two decades has been at least ten percent per year on average. Today, the growth is about five percent according to Frederik Paulsen."

"Adventures and expeditions with significant research content interest and inspire Frederik Paulsen. The expeditions represent a constant learning journey providing insights into the challenges of nature. It is also about pushing oneself, enduring extreme conditions, and surviving challenges that most other business personalities would never think of attempting, even though climbing Mount Everest, running marathons, and completing an Ironman are popular among today’s business elite. To successfully undertake adventures of this kind requires a competitive spirit beyond the ordinary. Frederik Paulsen is driven by challenges and hates to fail, as he has shared. At one point, everything was at stake."