Ola Ahlvarsson

Ola Ahlvarsson
Ola Ahlvarsson OLA Ahlvarsson.jpg
Born March 24, 1970 (1970-03-24) (age 41)
Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality Swedish
Occupation Entrepreneur, Internet Strategist

Ola Ahlvarsson (born March 24, 1970) is a Swedish entrepreneur based out of Stockholm. He is one of the founders of Result [1] and is currently the chairman of its board.

Ahlvarsson has a background as an entrepreneur working as an Internet strategist, business accelerator and a managerial advisor for Fortune 500 and small medium sized companies to help them grow faster. Ahlvarsson has authored the book 'Ola "Mission Possible" Ahlvarsson' which was published in Swedish by Midas in 2005,.[2] An English version of the same book was released in 2008.[3] Ahlvarsson is a frequent speaker at various international leading industry events such as the World Economic Forum, DLD, Le Web. He holds an MBA from the University of Stockholm and, is the course director and the executive MBA Program Faculty member at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.[4] Ahlvarsson also holds the World champion title in kickboxing (Wakko).[5]

Contents

Entrepreneurial Activities

Ola was part of several Swedish start up companies after leaving school, Swedish Body Armour Group, Soups & Subs, Music Zone and Internet Media Web Store as well as investing in a small real estate operation in Bollnäs, Sweden.

In 1997, Ahlvarsson pioneered the European Internet scene as a co-founder of Boxman, at the time the largest European e-commerce store selling CDs online. Boxman was founded by two teams of entrepreneurs, one with roots in Musiczone.se, with Fredrik Sidfalk, Ola Ahlvarsson and Gustaf Burström and, the other with roots in Videobutiken led by Krister Hanner, Kent Granat, Bill Odqvist and Håkan Damberg. The company was founded by among others, former SAS CEO Jan Carlzon and Kjell Spångberg. Ahlvarsson was Vice President International and helped internationalize operations for the company, setting up local offices in various European markets.

During his stint with Boxman, while trying to internationalize its operations, Ahlvarsson conceived the idea of creating a company that could help companies parachute success from one market to the other, similar to the way music labels worked with the artists in the record industry.

Result

In June 1999, Result was founded in Stockholm, Sweden. Result is an international network of business coaches founded in Stockholm, that helps companies execute success across various markets using new business methods / technology. To date, Result has been involved in approximately 130 launches across Europe, the US and Asia. He was the CEO of Result from June 1999 to November 2008. Ahlvarsson is currently the chairman of Result.

In 2005, Ahlvarsson assisted in the launch of FON, today the world's largest WiFi Community, expanding FON into Scandinavia and Russia. Ahlvarsson and his partners at Result have been responsible for the growth of professional online network Xing (formerly called openBC) in Scandinavia, Benelux, France and Spain. Ahlvarsson has worked with several other leading companies such as Blocket,[6] Rebtel,[7] Movilisto, Polarrose, Google, helping them grow in various capacities.

Ahlvarsson is also on the board of Emmy award winning Company P, leading Swedish fitness retailer Budo Fitness stores, luxury magazine Connoisseur and the chairman and main shareholder of Nöjesguiden, Sweden's largest entertainment magazine.

Ola Ahlvarsson and 3 Result partners have acquired 100% of the shares in Spray (former Lycos) [8] one of Europe's pioneer brand on the web with a portal business that includes Spraydate,[9] a leading Swedish dating site in the fun and flirt segment and Spraymail, Sweden's largest independent mail service. The same constellation also acquired Passagen, Sweden's largest blog portal and discussion forum. The sellers where media house Allers and directories company Eniro

Ahlvarsson has portfolios, apart from Spray and Passagen, in FON, Ulvhälls Herrgård, Wemind, Antipode Wines, Result, SIME, Nöjesguiden, Keynote Media [10] and Sellbranch. Ahlvarsson was the chairman and main shareholder of Torget, Sweden's oldest e-commerce portal with over 400 Swedish e-commerce partners until it was sold to European Directories in 2005. Ahlvarsson also served as the chairman and main shareholder in Letsbuyit.com that was sold to Europe Vision in 2006.

Stage presence

Ahlvarsson is a frequent speaker in conferences and industry events, some of which include Le Web Paris,[11] Tech Talk Menorca,[12] DLD,[13] PICNIC Amsterdam,[14] World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, the "Global Internet Summit" and the "European Online Publishing Conference". He is also the chairman and moderator of Northern Europe's largest Internet Media Event SIME,[15] a conference on digital opportunities centered in Scandinavia.

Awards and honors

Ahlvarsson has been in the epicenter of the entrepreneurial boom that has grown in Scandinavia and in Europe which has led to nominations such as "Top Ten Leading European Internet Entrepreneurs 1999" by the Wall Street Journal. Similar honors have been rendered by Business Week (January 2000) and Financial Times (May 2000). Ahlvarsson has twice been invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he has been elected "Global Leader for Tomorrow" together with thought leading businessmen, political-, religious- and artistic leaders.

In 2004 Ahlvarsson became an E-Strategies Course Director and Executive MBA Program lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Ahlvarsson is focusing on what he describes as “Internet Management” and teaching executive MBA students how to compete using online opportunities. Although a resident of Stockholm, Ahlvarsson spends most of his time living in airplanes and hotels around the world.

Martial Arts

Ahlvarsson has been an ardent student of martial arts. He has a black belt in Karate, world champion gold medal in Goju Ryu 1991 in Nha Okinawa. He was the Goju Ryu European champion in 1994, England, Swedish Champion in kung Fu 1996, Swedish kick boxing champion 1996 and World champion in kickboxing (wakko) in 1997 in Dubrovnik. Ahlvarsson still spends time training various martial art activities.

References

W.A.K.O not wakko! World Assosiaton of Kickboxning Organisations

External links


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