Kirsten

"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."

"God’s children had, on their part, shown greater interest in the conglomerate, and all had sat on the board. But the daughter Kirsten, who was the oldest and Ruben’s favorite, had not wanted to work actively within the companies. However, from an early age, she showed that she wanted to take over the management of Simontorp and especially the horse breeding on the farm. Ruben moved abroad in 1969, and Kirsten successfully managed Simontorp until 1977 when she was the first in God’s family to move from Sweden. After the move abroad, she started a successful horse breeding business in Great Britain and devoted most of her energy to it. At this time, she had proven to be the most business-savvy of God’s children."