01.05.23 | Interview

― Many of us have practical experience from the industries we assist. This enables us to add more value

Johannes moved away from his childhood home in Söderhamn at a tender age to join the ice hockey high school in Hudiksvall. But when he realised that his NHL dream was unlikely to come to fruition, he shifted his focus to investments and finance.  

 

“We have quite a few entrepreneurs in my family, which caused me to take an interest in investments at an early age. It was therefore an easy choice for me to study business administration and economics at Umeå University. I really enjoyed student life and was active in both student union activities and a youth equity savings club. Earning two bachelor’s degrees, in both business administration and economics, also kept me busy. After my studies, I was planning to do an internship in Florida. But then the pandemic hit and travel was out of the question… Instead, I spent six months studying psychology in Kristianstad before moving to Stockholm to work in finance.

I first worked for a year in corporate finance at Vator Securities, before joining Humble Group where I worked in M&A on the procurement side. Then I got to know Stratema and Fredrik Liljecrantz and joined their Construction team as an analyst here in the Stockholm office. I really enjoy the combination of construction and finance, since Söderhamn, where I hail from, has a proud craftsmanship tradition. Besides, my dad has his own electrical engineering firm, so it feels in some way like I’ve come full circle.

I really enjoy working at Stratema. Here I get to help developing our Stockholm office, and we all have a lot of responsibilities since there are so few of us. I find that highly motivating! I also appreciate that so many of us here at Stratema have practical experience from jobs in the industries we assist. We are not only doing financial calculations for our clients, as we also focus on the industrial logic. This enables us to add more value for our clients and to provide them with better guidance. If, for example, the client wants to know more about electricity in northern Sweden, we can explain how the electricity market actually works, rather than just churning out profitability calculations.

I definitely feel that my ice hockey background has helped me in my professional life. Since I left home at a very young age, I had to learn to fend for myself early on. It has made me more independent and doing sports has also given me a stronger psyche. I like to challenge myself and I’m not timid about getting stuck into new projects. I want to get even better at what I do at Stratema, and I would in future very much like to have even more client contact and responsibility for the overall process. But analysis will probably always remain an important foundation for what I do.”

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