Dan Olofsson, born 1950, is a Swedish entrepreneur and philanthropist, living in the southern city of Malmö, Sweden. After studying at Lund University for an M.Sc. degree in engineering in 1974, Mr. Olofsson began working in different technology consultancy companies including VBB and Skandiaconsult. He joined Swedish Sapia in 1986 and grew their technical consultancy division, which he bought in 1993. The company changed its name to Sigma with Dan Olofsson as its CEO. Sigma went public in 1997. In 2001 three business areas, Teleca, Sigma and Epsilon, each became a separate Public Limited Company with Dan Olofsson as Chairman and principal owner.
Since the start in 1986, Sigma, Epsilon and Teleca have grown from zero to 6,000 co-workers with subsidiaries in 10 countries. The companies have grown in three ways: through organic growth, “entrepreneur packages” and acquisition. Entrepreneur packages enable new companies to be started around a driven entrepreneur who becomes a co-owner of the company. Around 20 companies with over 1,500 employees have started in this way. The group has acquired both public and private companies. Dan Olofsson has been involved in seven public buy-outs, including the purchase of Epsilon in 2003.[1]
In recent years Mr Olofsson has been committed to developments in South Africa. One example is Thanda Private Game Reserve, which has been designated Africa's "Best Luxury Lodge", both 2007 and 2008, from the World Travel Awards.[2] 2009 and 2010 the site was chosen to "The world's leading luxury lodge".[3] His philanthropic commitment is best seen through “Star for Life”, which today includes 100 000 young people in a programme of prevention against HIV/Aids in South Africa and Namibia. Dan Olofsson is also founder of the Thanda Foundation, a trust that, among other projects, together with the Mandela family and the Mvezo Development Trust, is trying to support the development of Mvezo, the homevillage of Nelson Mandela.
Together with Kent Widding Persson, main sponsor of Malmö Ladies’ football Club (LdB FC Malmö), Dan Olofsson is one of the entrepreneurs behind World Village of Women Sports in Malmö. Once completed, the village will be a unique centre for research and training within every area of women’s sports.
Early 2011, Dan Olofsson initiated the funding of Uppstart Malmö, a trust that aims for creating more job opportunities in the under-privileged areas of his hometown Malmö. The concept behind the trust is to offer financial help for local entrepreneurs that want to develop their business ideas and create more jobs.[4]
Dan Olofsson has received several plaudits for his work. These include being voted South Swedish county of Skåne’s Greatest Entrepreneur, 2001 [5], Malmö ambassador of the year, 2004 [6], the Pegasus prize, 2008 [7], Global Business Coalition award in New York, 2008 [8], Entrepreneurial Model of the Year 2011 by Founders Alliance and H.M. The King´s Medal 12th size for important contributions to Swedish business and filantrophic commitment 2011 [9].