Together with the company DGC, you were part of a real success story, what kind of driving forces and qualities do you need to make such a journey possible?
We were in business for over 25 years before we made our exit and it would never have worked if we hadn't had a lot of fun along the way. We were a bunch of competitive guys and girls who got on well together and complemented each other, which makes for success. Maybe I have the quality to surround myself with good people.
What is a meaningful life for you and how have you managed to combine family and six children with a long career as a CEO?
The combination of a large family and a CEO job is probably only possible if your partner takes the main responsibility at home, so I have to thank my wife Lotta for that. A meaningful life is a life of love, and with small children you bathe in it (and Lego pieces and string paper), being needed creates meaning, which of course also applies in working life.
You have now lived in Paris for just over a year, what has the time there with your family given you for valuable insights and thoughts about the next phase of your life?
When you're a CEO and you get 100 emails a day and employees are queuing up to talk to you, you feel very needed, you can easily believe that you as a person are indispensable to the company. The day you leave, you realize it was just a role you had on loan, and it becomes very quiet. It's a tough transition. What emerges are the relationships that are real, with family and friends, and interests that previously had to take a back seat. Now I know that you can live a good life without being a CEO. But at the same time, I've started to long to get back there, because it's really fun to work.