- Erik Wachtmeister
-
Erik Wachtmeister 
Born Sweden Known for Investment Banking
Founder, ASMALLWORLDTitle Count Spouse Countess Louise Wachtmeister Website www.BestofallWorlds.com Count Erik Wachtmeister is the founding chairman of ASMALLWORLD Holdings, Inc.[1] The son of Swedish Ambassador Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister and Countess Ulla Wachtmeister,[2] he earned a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in 1983.[3] He has a long professional background in international investment banking,[4] and is currently planning to launch the new social media site BestofallWorlds.com.[5]
Contents
Early life, education
Erik Wachtmeister was born to the Countess Ulla Wachtmeister and Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister, and partly raised on the Wanås estate in southern Sweden. His mother is a painter, while his father was a career diplomat, and notably the Swedish Ambassador to the United States from 1974 to 1989, and a close personal friend of George Bush Senior.[2] He also has two sisters.[6]
Wachtmeister earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1977 and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in 1983.[3]
Career
Investment banking
After graduating, Wachmeister went on to hold senior corporate finance positions with Ladenburg Thalmann in New York City/Los Angeles and Rothschild in New York.[7] He also worked at Lehman Brothers in London and New York.[8][3] He created his own business in 1993, doing private placements for public companies. In 2000 he became the founding CEO of the UK-based Viking Internet, an investment company that he later took public on the London Stock Exchange.[4]
Throughout this time period he lived in ten cities,[5] including Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Moscow, Stockholm, and Kiev.[9] In January 2008 he joined the advisory board of the Kiwi Collection, a web-based luxury travel resource.[7]
ASMALLWORLD
In March of 2004, Wachtmeister and his wife Louise founded the social networking website ASMALLWORLD.[8] Wachtmeister served as CEO and Chairman, and Louise as Marketing Director.[3] He claims he started working on the concept of an exclusive social networking site for jetsetters in 1998,[5] when the idea occurred to him during a wild boar hunt in the German forest.[10] He stated "In traveling extensively to the world's social hot spots for many years, I realized there was a community of global nomads who hang out together. I decided to make a business out of helping them meet and find solutions to their common problems."[11] The website launched two years before Facebook was made available to non-college members,[5][9] and was dubbed "MySpace for millionaires" by the Wall Street Journal.[8] New members must receive an invitation from a pre-existing member with invitation privileges to be accepted. As of September 2007, the site had 150,000 users.[10] By May 2008, the number had grown to 320,000 members, with about 65% of members from Europe and 20% from the United States.[8] By April of 2010, Wachtmeister had ceased to be active with managing the website, and membership was in excess of 500,000.[1]
Best of All Worlds
Wachtmeister has stated he and his wife are working on a new website. Expected launch date of the site is rumored to be in summer of 2011.[5]
Personal life
Erik Wachtmeister is married to Countess Louise Wachtmeister.[5]
Further reading
- The New York Times: Facebook for the Few (September 6, 2007)
- Forward Magazine: Count Erik’s World (April 13, 2010)
References
- ^ a b Saqr, Ruba (April 2010). "Count Erik's World". Forward Magazine. http://www.forwardsyria.com/story/18/Count%20Erik’s%20world. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b "Washington, D.C.: The Wachtmeisters". Swedish Press. January 2005. http://www.nordicway.com/search/places/places_washington.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b c d "Erik Wachtmeister's Executive Profile and Biography". BusinessWeek. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=27633282. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b "Speakers: Erik Wachtmeister". DLD Conferences. http://www.dld-conference.com/speakers/digital-business/erik-wachtmeister_aid_311.html. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b c d e f Murgatroyd, Rob (2011). "Interview with Erik Wachtmeister". Jet Set Life. http://jetsetlife.tv/jet-set-live/interview-with-eric-weichmeister-founder-of-asmallworld/. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ "Exclusive website keeps out the plebians". Columbia News Service. February 14, 2006. http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-02-14/stefanini-asmallworld. Retrieved 2011-04-03.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Kiwi Collection Welcomes Erik Wachtmeister to Advisory Board". Hotel Newswire. January 18, 2008. http://hotelexecutive.com/newswire/6110/kiwi-collection-welcomes-erik-wachtmeister-to-advisory-board. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b c d Ruiz, Nicola (May 2, 2008). "Five Social Networking Sites of the Wealthy". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/02/social-networks-vip-tech-personal-cx_nr_0502style.html. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b La Ferla, Ruth (September 6, 2007). "A Facebook for the Few". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/fashion/06smallworld.html. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
- ^ Crampton, Thomas (August 29, 2005). "Join? Well, if you have to ask...". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/technology/28iht-net29.html. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
External links
Categories:- Living people
- Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
- Swedish nobility
- Swedish businesspeople
- Alumni of INSEAD
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