Holger Craaford. The name rings a bell? It may be because he has lent his name to the infamous Café Holger. More probable is that you have seen his name in capital letters pass over your head every time you enter Ekonomicentrum. In order for you to be able to boast with your knowledge to teacher or maybe to make small talk with a stranger over a cigarette outside the entrance here are some quick facts in order to boost your general knowledge about this mythical creature.
- Holger Craaford is a Swedish entrepreneur born in Stockholm and educated at Handelshögskolan.
- After graduating he started working at Åkerlund&Rausing, based in Lund. He had a large part in the creation of their subsidiary, Tetra Pak.
- Selling his share of Tetra Pak enabled him to found the company Gambro, which manufactured artificial kidneys. This greatly helped people suffering from chronic diseases.
- Holger was a very successful businessman and his descendants now make several of the wealthiest people in Lund
- His wealth also enabled him to found the Craaford Foundation. Its main focus is to give donations to research in Lund and its sole biggest investment was the construction of Holger Craafords Ekonomicentrum to which he himself took initiative. The foundation has gone from having three million kr in 1980 to having almost three billion kr today.
- The foundation also hands out the Craaford prize, which awards progress in fields outside of the scope of the Nobel Prize: astronomy and mathematics; geosciences; biosciences, emphasizing on ecology; and polyarthritis, which is a disease Craaford died of.
- In 1972 he became honorary doctor of economy at Lund University.
Hopefully Holger Craaford is more than just a name for you now, which he deserves for the things he has done for Ekonomihögskolan.
