15. Jan Ståhlberg

Jan Ståhlberg is one of Europe’s private equity veterans who has consistently embraced governance as a critical driver of performance and value creation. Five key interview statements are worth highlighting: (1) “private equity should outperform public companies […] PE practitioners constantly question the status quo.” (2) “Public boards are more dedicated to what they have. They rarely question the existing business.” (3) “Everyone is informed in real-time about everything. Indeed, this may lead to an overload of information, but overall, this is still more preferable than top-down filtering that may risk excluding potentially insightful stimuli and feedback […] this is Free Energy Governance: connecting top and bottom in circular causality of sensemaking with the least friction and optimal response time.” (4) “Create a culture that empowers and encourages people to contribute, to take decisions, and not to be risk averse.” (5) “You cannot expect bottom-up stimuli reaching the top when the top is not reaching out to the bottom. And sometimes a simple walk through the office can make all the difference. Listen humble and with respect. In summary, it really comes down to three things: communication, transparency, and respect.”