The founder
My brother Bengt.
On January 17 this year, 2017, my brother Bengt passed away, 67 years old.
In his last years, we spent more time together than before in our work with the Sjöberg Foundation.
Bengt’s life was greatly influenced by his upbringing.
He was born as the fourth and last son in our farming family in 1949. As the youngest and with an increasingly mechanized agriculture, his labor was not in demand. He, the dreamer, had time to fantasize about everything he would have when he grew up. It was motorcycle models he saw in his older brother’s weekly magazines, but above all cars. He spent endless time designing and dreaming up different car models himself. This interest in cars was his great passion for the rest of his life. That he would be able to afford to get all these motorcycles and cars, he was convinced of in front of us skeptical brothers. A stubborn little loner took shape.
Bengt’s studies consisted of secondary school in Lysekil followed by technical high school and an economics degree in Gothenburg with a focus on marketing and distribution.
After his studies, Bengt took a temporary job as a traveling salesman of Tylö sauna heaters and received an award after a campaign for the best results in Sweden. Perhaps this is where he honed his sales skills. The trips were made in an old Saab V4 whose road handling was sometimes put to the test too hard. He then gained experience abroad by working at the trade secretariats in Prague and Jeddah.
Bengt began his career in the logistics industry in 1977 at ASG, where he was transferred to the sales office that ASG and Schenker jointly ran in Hong Kong. The official vehicle was a Vespa, with which he meandered through the heavy traffic. After a few years, ASG opened its own office and began an expansion in which part-owned subsidiaries in surrounding countries were incorporated into the group. In the 1980s, the largest Swedish investment to date was made in Hong Kong when ASG bought a large terminal building and moved its operations there. In 1986, Bengt started a family by marrying the Thai flight attendant Jirapa, with whom he had a daughter Michelle in 1987 and a son Joachim in 1989. Now two events also occurred that laid the foundation for Bengt’s fortune. ASG decided to sell the foreign operations. Bengt was able to buy out the remote work at a low price. Bengt had built up some capital by speculating on the fluctuating Hong Kong stock exchange. Subsequently, SJ decided to sell its A-shares in ASG and Bengt took up the offer and suddenly had 27% of the voting rights in the group. When ASG was then sold to Danzas, Bengt’s shareholding had been converted into cash and cash equivalents. At the same time, his role as CEO had ended.
These were difficult years for Bengt, who loved his profession. He devoted himself to investments in various businesses such as leasing, hotels, etc., but did not like it. After about 5 years, Bengt restarted a successor, APC, to the logistics business he had previously run. In the following years, the business was consolidated and with the increasing European imports from China, a Chinese subsidiary of its own could be built up and expanded. After this development, Bengt felt that the hardening logistics industry had had its best time. The old business contacts he had in Sweden, where he spent his visits traveling around, acquiring and maintaining
customers, began to disappear due to old age. He made the trips in his old Golf Cabriolet with a plastic bucket in the front seat to cope with the leak in case of rain showers, far from the childhood dreams he had of nice cars, now that he could afford to get any car he wanted. Now his dreams were instead to buy a castle or Turning Torso, but in neither case was his offer accepted. But the dream of achieving something great remained. The contacts he made during his travels no longer had the same feeling for the ASG era, the common references decreased. It was time to start winding down the ownership of the APC Group. It was the well-run Japanese logistics company Nippon Express that bought the APC Group. In November 2015, he left the business.
2016 began with a shock. The stubborn cough that has bothered Bengt in recent months turned out to be from tumours in his lungs. The diagnosis was lung cancer and tumors were already spread throughout the body. The discussions we had had for a long time about building a foundation suddenly became topical. Now Bengt decided to establish a perpetual foundation that would promote research primarily in the field of cancer, but also in health and the environment. This was a grand idea that could now also become a reality, and this time not just a dream. But now it was urgent, the doctors’ prognosis pointed to a few months of survival. Our first contact was made with Göran K. Hansson, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was able to give us insight into how a number of other foundations worked and accepted to be part of the board. Contacts with the research host continued, but above all, contacts were made from representatives of alternative medicine. These and also those suffering from lung cancer were given hope by Bengt’s message at the television appearances that followed the formation of the Sjöberg Foundation with a foundation capital of SEK 2 billion. Bengt then spoke of wanting to bridge the gap between conventional and non-conventional medicine through support for research. In addition to support for research projects, a prize, the Sjöberg Prize, of one million US dollars would be announced for outstanding cancer researchers in their careers.
When summer came, we decided to take in views from cancer researchers about what the foundation should invest in. Most emphasized the need for coordination between the research units and the need for patient follow-up both for care and research purposes. The Foundation’s decision was that we would contribute to the building of a network between Swedish research institutions in initial lung cancer care with a focus on early diagnosis and precision diagnostics. For research and also for clinical activities, we would support the development of information systems with patient data for lifelong follow-up of patients. Our contacts had taught us that research projects focused on non-conventional methods often lacked funding because the products cannot normally be patented. Here, the patient and societal benefits could be great, as the costs of these products are negligible compared to modern cancer drugs. Here, too, the foundation could make a contribution by awarding grants, a way of bridging the gap Bengt has talked about.
Bengt’s health seemed to improve gradually, but at the beginning of December it was found that the tumours had begun to grow again and inoperable brain tumours were discovered. He left us on January 17th.
Bengt’s last years he considered to be the happiest. The response and appreciation he received through the foundation donation was a surprise to him. The curiosity he had always had in different areas he now devoted to the study of cancer research, which fascinated him. His outlook on life changed as a result of contacts with cancer sufferers. He had a different outlook on life and nature and felt that his fortune would make a positive contribution to the future. He no longer read the stock market pages, the wealth became insignificant. His last act felt right. Finally a dream that would come true.