Hans Rausing

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Hans Rausing with Tetra Brik, 1963

Hans Rausing, KBE,[1] (born 25 March 1926) is a Swedish businessman based in the United Kingdom. He made his fortune from his co-inheritance of Tetra Pak, a company founded by his father Ruben Rausing and currently the largest food packaging company in the world.[2][3] In the Forbes world fortune ranking, Rausing was placed at number 83 with an estimated fortune of $US10 billion in 2011.[4] According to Forbes Hans Rausing was the second richest Swedish billionaire in 2013. As of March 2013, Forbes reported his net worth as $11B. As of 17 May 2013 (2013-05-17), Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated Rausing's net worth to be $13.3 billion.[5]

Early life

Rausing was born in Gothenburg in 1926 as the second son to industrialist Ruben Rausing and his wife Elisabeth (née Varenius). Rausing had two brothers, Gad and Sven.

Career

Rausing studied Economics, Statistics and Russian at Lund University, graduating in 1948.[6] In 1954, at the age of 28, Rausing was appointed Managing Director of Tetra Pak, while his brother Gad became Deputy Managing Director.[7] Rausing retained this post until 1985, when he took over as Chairman of the Board.[8] Rausing left Tetra Pak in 1993 and sold his 50% share of the company to Gad in 1995 in what was at the time called the largest private buyout ever in Europe.[9]

Much of the enormous success of Tetra Pak in the 1970s and 1980s has been credited to the leadership of Hans and Gad Rausing, who literally took the company from a six-person family business to a global multi-national corporation.[10] Over the course of his business career, Rausing became a specialist in Russian affairs and has made many private investments in both Russia and Ukraine. He was responsible for the Russian market within Tetra Pak, and negotiated the first Tetra Pak machine export to the then Soviet Union in 1959, eventually making Tetra Pak the largest foreign employer in Russia.[11]

Patronage

Hans Rausing and his wife Märit have donated large sums to charities and research in the UK and Sweden, among others to large medical research projects at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University.[12][13] Through the Märit and Hans Rausing Fund, they support local community projects in their home county of Sussex.[14]

Through her fund Arcadia, Rausing's daughter Lisbet is financing the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the School for Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the Hans Rausing Scholarship in the History of Science at the Imperial College and the Hans Rausing Chair in the History of Science at Uppsala University, which is also hosting an annual Hans Rausing Lecture in the History of Science.[15][16][17]

Honors

Hans Rausing has been appointed Doctor Honoris Causa in Medicine and Economics at Lund University. He is a visiting professor at Mälardalens Högskola, Sweden, and honorary professor at the University of Dubna, Russia.[18] He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2006.[citation needed]

Personal life

Hans Rausing and his wife Märit Rausing have two daughters, Lisbet and Sigrid, and one son, Hans Kristian Rausing.

Rausing has been a resident of the UK since 1982.[19] He currently lives in Wadhurst, East Sussex.[20]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Creating a Benchmark for Recycling Rubbish China Daily, retrieved 7 November 2011
  3. ↑ Tetra Pak launches next generation cheese production unit Packaging Europe News, retrieved 11 November 2011
  4. ↑ Hans Rausing, Forbes.com, retrieved 16 May 2011.
  5. ↑ Forbes Billionaires Sweden 2013
  6. ↑ Leander, Lars, Tetra Pak. A Vision Becomes Reality. A company history with a difference, Lund: Tetra Pak International 1996 (ISBN 91-630-4789-6), p. 33
  7. ↑ Idem p. 29
  8. ↑ Idem
  9. ↑ Tetra Pak International S.A. Frederick C. Ingram in The Gale Directory of Company Histories, retrieved 4 November 2011
  10. ↑ Idem
  11. ↑ Hans Rausing European Business Forum, retrieved 4 November 2011
  12. ↑ Hans and Märit Rausing Karolinska Institutet, retrieved 4 November 2011
  13. ↑ Hans Rausing Medicine Hedersdoktor Lund University, retrieved 4 November 2011
  14. ↑ Professor and Mrs Hans Rausing Sussex Community Foundation, retrieved 4 November 2011
  15. ↑ The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, retrieved 7 November 2011
  16. ↑ The Hans Rausing Scholarship in History of Science Imperial College, retrieved 7 November 2011
  17. ↑ The Hans Rausing Lectures Uppsala University, retrieved 7 November 2011
  18. ↑ Hans Rausing European Business Forum, retrieved 4 November 2011
  19. ↑ Rausing Family Values: the Dark Side of a Dynasty The Independent, retrieved 10 November 2011
  20. ↑ Playing the System The Guardian, retrieved 10 November 2011

External links

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