Johan Staël von Holstein

Johan Staël von Holstein

JSvH at SIME Awards
Born Lars Johan Magnus Staël von Holstein
5 May 1963
Halmstad, Sweden
Residence Singapore, Singapore
Occupation Entrepreneur, Former Founder & CEO of MyCube

Lars Johan Magnus Staël von Holstein (born 5 May 1963 in Halmstad, Sweden) is an author and co-founder of dot-com companies such as Icon Medialab and LetsBuyIt during the dot-com boom in Sweden.[1]

In the late 1990s he became a public figure and controversial debater. Ranked as one of Sweden's top 50 most influential persons during the years 1997-1999, and voted best speaker in 1998. Johan is the former founder and CEO of MyCube which is what brought him to Singapore.

Early life

In his early years, Johan spent a few seasons in the Alps. He was dreaming of a career as a professional mogul skier and making a career in the travel industry holding positions as hotel manager, resort manager and regional manager (Costa Brava). After a car accident he was unable to ski and was convalescent for a year. Johan therefore went back to Sweden and started to study information technology at Lund University in the south of Sweden.

In 1989, at the age of 25, he started to study at the Stockholm School of Business, Stockholm University in Sweden, where he majored in marketing management. He also attended Harvard Business School and took two MBA courses, "International Business" and "Doing Business with Pacific Rim Countries" during a summer session, and also spent a semester at Lynn University in Florida.

Leaderships

Icon Medialab

He began his career within the media and finance conglomerate the Kinnevik Group as the apprentice of Jan Hugo Stenbeck.[2] Holstein worked his way up to his first CEO position at start up ITV (Interactive television), having initiated as a marketing director of Z-TV, the Kinnevik Group’s flagship TV channel for young people. He grew InTV to become the largest teletext company in Europe with offices in 6 countries. Staël von Holstein was vice president of Inlux, in Luxemburg, he then went on to become responsible for banque Invik’s sales and credit card operations.[3]

At the end of 1995, Johan left the Kinnevik Group to found Icon Medialab International together with Jesper Jos Olsson, Erik Wickström, and Magnus Lindahl.[4]

IQUBE

Between 2001 and 2003, Johan enjoyed three seasons with his family in Verbier, Switzerland before moving back to Stockholm, Sweden to start his next venture, IQUBE. Founded in 2004 by Johan Staël von Holstein, IQUBE quickly grew into one of the largest private incubators in Europe[5] with a portfolio of more than 100 companies. A model with the mission to create the world's best infrastructure and ecosystem for entrepreneurs in early stages.

IQUBE received great recognition as a value creator and major investors include Investor, the Nordic region's largest industrial holding company, as well as Sjätte AP-Fonden, a Swedish pension fund. Staël von Holstein during this time was recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by Chief Executive magazine and elected as one of ten board members on the Swedish Government's Cultural Board, a government agency with the task of implementing national cultural policy.[6]

He was an independent columnist for the Stockholm-edition of the newspaper Metro for years.[7]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Ibisom, David (28 April 2008). "Sweden's Enterprise Evangelists". Financial Times.
  2. ↑ Latour, Almar (21 January 2000). "Iconoclast: Internet Millionaire Crusades to Overturn Swedish Social Values - An Unapologetic Capitalist, Mr. von Holstein Rattles The Leftist Status Quo - The Spirit of Gordon Gekko". The Wall Street Journal Europe.
  3. ↑ http://www.banqueinvik.lu
  4. ↑ Heller, Richard (19 March 2001). "The new face of Swedish socialism". Forbes. Retrieved 1 Dec 2010.
  5. ↑ Oh, Boon Ping (22 March 2009). "S'pore 'a best place for start-ups today'.". The Business Times (AsiaOne). Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 1 Dec 2010.
  6. ↑ Buss, Dale (April 2008). "Global Leaders of Tomorrow". Chief Executive. Retrieved 1 Dec 2010.
  7. ↑ Helander, Magnus (17 December 2008). "Staël von Holstein kickad från Metro". Resumé (magazine). Retrieved 1 Dec 2010.
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