Justin Jenk

Justin Michael Spencer Jenk (born February 1960) is a British-Danish business executive and investor. He is a co-founder of advisory firm Raktas, and a major investor in multiple start-up companies including Venturethree, Danfoss-Turbocor, Arcam and Neit.

As a partner at both McKinsey & Company and Accenture, Jenk helped build both firms' global presence as well as advised a number of international clients in the consumer goods, industrial and financial sectors. He helped to implement bad bank approaches in Europe, notably with Securum and Swedbank.^[1]

Early life and education

Jenk was born in 1960 in Mumbai, India^[2] to Jorgen Jenk and Faith Sisman. His father was an international businessman and war veteran^[3] and his mother was a senior stewardess for BOAC.^[4] Jenk was brought up in India, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom.^[5]

Jenk attended both Westminster School and St Paul's School in London. In 1978, he won a Dean Rusk scholarship to Davidson College in North Carolina. He then attended the University of Oxford and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography in 1982.

Jenk joined Swire Group in 1982, working for the Group's transport interests in the Australia, Pacific, Asia and Persian Gulf regions. In 1988, he graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA.^[6][7]

Career

1988 - 2002

In 1988, Jenk joined McKinsey & Company in its Stockholm office. During his time at McKinsey, Jenk opened and managed eight new offices, including Rio de Janeiro, Athens and Moscow. He also co-founded McKinsey's Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in London.^[8] In 1992, at the height of the financial crisis in Sweden, Jenk advised the Swedish Government on how to save Nordbanken, the state-owned bank, from insolvency. The solution was to create Securum, a so-called "bad bank" that would assume and unwind Norbanken's non-performing loans and bad debt.^[9] Securum took over a quarter of Nordbanken's credit portfolio, protecting Nordbanken's capital, liquidity and operations.^[10][11]

Jenk advised Russian companies and businessmen on how to capitalise on the growing consumer and financial markets in Russia in 1993.^[9] He assisted in the development of telecoms company VimpelCom Ltd., LOMO, the Hermitage Museum, and Alfa Capital. Jenk also helped create Russian Standard and Elbrewery in Poland. In 2001, Accenture appointed him to its transformation team and made him a co-head of its Restructuring/Mergers and Acquisitions practice, with a focus on Europe and Asia.^[12][13]

2003 - Present

In 2003, Dimitris Daskalopoulos,the owner of Delta Holdings, his Greek consumer goods company appointed Jenk as CEO. Jenk improved Delta's financial performance, which led to its 2006 absorption of Chipita and four other consumer product companies.^[14] The new company became Vivartia.^[15] In 2007, Vivartia was sold to private equity interests for €1.4 billion and Jenk resigned as CEO with this change of ownership. in 2008, Jenk faced legal allegations in Greece regarding his trading of Delta stock shares. In 2015 the Greek Supreme Court Court of Cassation vacated all charges against Jenk.^[16]

Jenk founded Raktas, a company that provided growth and restructuring services in 2007. Later, he co-founded European Resolution Capital, a specialist bank restructuring firm.^[17] European Resolution worked with governments and financial institutions during the 2008-2012 financial crisis.^[18][19] In 2008, Jenk advised the Irish Government on its creation of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and latterly assisted the Spanish Government in the creation of SAREB.^[20]

From 2009 to 2011, Jenk was involved in the rescue of Sweden's Swedbank from near insolvency.^[21][22] With the support of the Swedish central bank ("Riksbanken"), Swedbank CEO Michael Wolf retained Jenk to organize and manage its bad bank operations.^[21][23]

Jenk's activities with his specialist team and Wolf were helped in rescuing Swedbank and stabilising the Baltic and Swedish economies.^[24] The Baltic ‘bad bank’ had €10 billion assets under management and 1,100 affected firms at the peak of the crisis. The Estonian state awarded Swedbank the Cross of Terra Mariana, for work done.^[25]

Through Raktas, Jenk has worked as an advisor and business angel with Starbreeze Studios, Arcam, Danfoss-Turbocorp, Sloane&Hyde, and startup Neit.^[26]

Work in education

Jenk has also worked in the education, helping universities improve their performance . As a member of the International Advisory Board for the Open University Business School, Jenk helped oversee the school global growth strategy.^[27]

In 2012, Jenk was appointed CEO of the IFL Executive Education program at Stockholm School of Economics (SSE).^[28] Jenk set up a customised executive training programme at SSE IFL for Danske Bank's investment advisors, leading to increased revenues for SSE. In 2013, SSE was awarded the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Professional Development Award.^[29]

The restructuring of the SSE IFL program, which included productivity improvements and the cancellation of a proposed satellite university in Russia, was ultimately a success. However, Jenk was criticized by a SSE faculty group that wanted the Russian campus. During this controversy, the media released details of the Delta legal case in Greece, which was then still unresolved. As a consequence of this bad publicity, Jenk resigned from SSE IFL in 2013, .^[30][31]

Jenk is a guest-lecturer at Oxford's Saïd Business School and at the Oxford Geography Department.^[7] He is also a public speaker on topical business issues.^[32] He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of St. Catherine's British School in Athens and is part of the Working Group at Keble College, Oxford.^[33]

References