For Jan Fredriksen, family and work was always center stage and he had an engaging approach to his success and fame. For Jan Fredriksen, doing profitable business was both his work and his interest and sharing his successes through donations to charity and foundations was very close to his heart.
In connection with Jan Fredriksen's 40th birthday in 1994, the Jan Fredriksen Foundation for Research and Culture was founded. Through the foundation, the Fredriksen family provided support to research and cultural activities, mainly in Gothenburg and western Sweden. Over the years, donations have been made to Chalmers, the Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law, the Art Museum, Göteborg Opera and Universeum.
A man with creative force has left us, but his lifework lives on. Or as Jan Fredriksen would have said: As long as we live every day in the present and for the future, our journey will never end.
Zuo-feng Zhang
Associate Dean, Research
Samara sighed. Her research subject was shipping and she’d taken up Jan Fredriksen as her research subject. She was sorry to hear he had died. She felt like she knew him personally because of all the research she’d done on him and his family. She knew that Bjorn Fredriksen was poised to take over his father’s business. He had a law degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Yale. He was thirty years old, the middle child, and the most well known of the siblings. He also had a reputation as something of a playboy.
Samara couldn’t wait to see what he did with the family holdings. Sell them piece by piece or consolidate assets and hunker down? Their stock prices were likely to take a hit from the death of Jan so it would be interesting to see what Bjorn did with that.
It would probably also take her research paper to another level so that was an added plus. Samara grinned to herself, sending Amy a text to give her the news. Their friendship had flourished over the six years they’d known each other and Samara had found a new family in Amy’s. Not that she didn’t still miss her own; especially her sister…but she was coming to terms. Her phone pinged a message notification and she clicked on it to read.
Is that a good thing or bad?
Amy asked and Samara shrugged and replied.
Both? I guess.
Samara walked slowly to the school cafeteria where she worked part time as a cashier. It was a good gig because she could research on her iPad while she rung in the orders. Her boss didn’t mind as long as she didn’t screw up the accounts.
It was a hot summer day; the campus was mostly empty except for the summer school crowd. She was dressed in short jean shorts that showcased her long legs to best advantage. Being a five foot eleven black girl had its disadvantages sometimes, especially when she was trying not to be noticed; but she didn’t mind the admiring glances she was getting right now.
She tossed her short hair out of her face; with her pixie cut, it tended to get into her eyes now and then but it was also really comfortable in the heat and complimentary to her heart shaped face. She wore no jewelry or make up, her sleeveless arms were bare. Her fitted red t-shirt had ‘Good Morning. I see the Assassins have Failed’ emblazoned across it. It gave people an excuse to stare at her substantial bust; a fact which Samara was ruefully just realizing. She shrugged internally as she entered the cafeteria.
Samara was doing further research on the inner workings of Nordstrom when she came across an article stating that Bjorn Fredriksen would be in California taking a break in the aftermath of his father’s funeral.
She gasped in excitement and was on her feet heading towards her professor’s office before she’d even really thought about it. Luckily professor Zhang had an open door policy and she didn’t so much as flinch when Samara burst in.
“Professor! Bjorn Fredriksen is in town! Like right now. What are the chances he might be willing to come to the campus and give a talk?”
“Whoa, hey, slow down there Sam. What are we talking about again?”
“Bjorn Fredriksen…Jan Fredriksen’s son? The shipping magnate who just past away. And my research project by the way…”
“Uh huh?”
“What if we could get him to come do a guest lecture on Nordstorm? Isn’t that something we would be interested in doing?”
“Well..yes. Assuming he would agree to do so-“
“Well we could contact him and see,” Samara was practically jumping up and down with excitement.
“We could, but you’d need to calm down first.”
Samara stayed absolutely still, “I’m calm. Promise.”