Board members

Before founding Fairford, Bengt has worked as executive manager in medium sized companies within different field of activities for more than 30 years. He has also served on the board of a number of private and listed companies. From the very start Bengt has been instrumental to Fairford, serving as executive chairman and CEO, building its foundation and driving its continued development until relinquishing his executive role in 2015. He continues to act as non-executive director in the holding company in addition to chairing a number of portfolio companies of the group.

As active entrepreneur and former CEO of Combisafe Group, Bengt has gained vast international experience within executive management and business development, focusing on profitable growth. Today Bengt has an advisory role as chairman as well as board member in several Swedish-based international companies.

Christian has 20 years' of experience from working within economic research, management consulting and as entrepreneur, director and CEO of various business education training companies. He is the founder and CEO of Edlegio/Ny Teknik Education which is a subsidiary of Ny Teknik Group.

Danny obtained his bachelor's degree with a major in finance from the American University of Beirut (AUB). He then began his career in the finance consulting field with PwC and remained in the financial services sector for 4 years. He then joined the BPC group, and he is currently based in the UAE and in the management team of Le Chocolat, a confectionery manufacturing company that specializes in high quality raw material solutions for bakeries, chocolate factories, and airlines, as well as international retail brands such as Ray's and Snaktive.

Eva has board experience from more than 25 public and private companies, she has served 8 years at the Board of Directors of AP1, she is former CEO (and later Executive Chairman) of Erik Penser Bank, founder of Mercurius Financial Communications and former Head of Investor Relations and part of the corporate finance team at Investor AB.

Gunnel Åkerman has been a senior executive in the retail industry for more than 20 years. Her most recent position was as CEO for Life Europe and she is currently a board member at Svensk Egenvård. During her career she has also been a senior executive and board member in a number of unlisted European companies across software, architecture and commercial property.

Between 1996 and 2003 Hans was active in London in private equity as an Associate Director at Industri Kapital and a partner at BC Partners. He is managing partner and co-founder of BV Capital Partners, a private equity holding which invests in small- and medium sized enterprises in the Benelux since 2003. He is currently chairman of the board of Matco NV (chemicals). He is also a board member of Teconex SA (electricity products), United Chocolat Group GmbH (chocolates) and Pegase Travel NV (tour operator). Hans is also an adjunct professor at Vlerick Business School in Belgium and at Insead in France.

Between 1995 and 2003 John was active in London in private equity as Associate Director at Industri Kapital and managing partner at West Private Equity (now called Lyceum Capital). He is managing partner and co-founder of BV Capital Partners, a private equity holding which invests in small- and medium sized enterprises in the Benelux since 2003. He is chairman of the board of Teconex SA (electric products), and LensOnline Groep NV (contact lenses), and a board member of Pegase Travel NV (tour operator) and Matco NV (chemicals).

Kjell-Åke’s working experience includes consultant in the field of energy efficiency, CEO positions in different industries such as Private Equity, Media, Railway and Chairman in 10 different companies. He is educated at KTH with a master of engineering and at Uppsala University where he got an MBA degree.

Lars-Åke has for 40 years been active in Swedish industrial companies with an international direction including long term positions at the Bonnier Group, Haldex and Stora. He has held CEO positions during almost 25 years, of which 11 years were in public companies. During the last 10 years he has acted as Chairman/Board Member in Swedish as well as international companies.

Mikael has a broad experience from executive positions in several global industrial companies. He is an entrepreneur with a vast international experience. In general Mikael has been working in industrial companies mainly in a CEO role. Mikael has also had several board positions in both listed and private companies.

Per has been active as a business lawyer for more than 40 years focusing on M&A, corporate restructuring and general business law. Per has experience from the construction, energy and utility sectors and is presently involved in a number of green technology projects. Per has been a senior partner at Hellström Advokatbyrå for the last 16 years.

Pål has worked in senior executive positions for production and retail companies in the last 35 years, including Norsk Data, KappAhl and Komplett. Pål has several board assignments such as Norlux, Element Logic, Smart Retur and Homeboxx. Other historical assignments includes Oscar Jacobson, Autostore, Fritzøe Engros and PorterBuddy. Pål is now working as Senior Industrial Advisor, and has worked with several well-known investors including EQT, Valedo, Triton, Varro and Norvestor.

After his MBA, Ramy joined BPC Group in UAE and spent 8 years looking after the group's portfolio companies. In 2018, Ramy relocated to Portugal to oversee the real estate development business which operates under the name Splendimension.

Rayan begun his career as part of Ernst & Young's audit/assurance team in Lebanon after graduating with a finance degree from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Rayan then joined Axel Christiernsson's Dutch entity and spent 1 year working with the management team. In 2013 Rayan pursued his MBA at IE business school in Madrid and graduated in June 2014. Rayan is currently based in Dubai, UAE and manages Le Chocolat LLC, a food manufacturing company in the B2B and B2C space, that produces chocolate and confectionery products to factories, bakeries, airlines, coffee shops, chocolate shops, supermarkets, health and wellness centres and hotels in the Arab Gulf and Asian markets.

Roger has worked in executive positions in industrial companies for more than 30 years, internationally as well as in Sweden and mainly as CEO. Although working at different manufacturing companies as EFD Induction, Bulten and TransLink mixed with heavy industrial companies as OVAKO, Gränges Aluminium and Höganäs, customers and markets has always been related to the Automotive industry. Roger now holds various positions in boards related to the manufacturing industry.

Sammy obtained his bachelor's degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut with a minor focus on Business Administration. He began his professional career with Deloitte and Touche's Audit and Quality Assurance team in Dubai, with a focus on the financial services industry, where he served for three years. Sammy is currently based in Egypt, managing one of BPC Holding's subsidiaries WAPCO which focuses on water and carbonated soft drinks bottling within the country.

Salah graduated law school at the Lebanese University in Beirut during the 1970s. His career as an international businessman started after a decade of operation in Saudi Arabia. His initial investments were primarily in the US before starting to invest in Sweden in the early 1990s. His positive experience from Sweden and its business climate made him decide to continue to have Sweden as a base for his future long-term European work and led to the foundation of Fairford with Bengt A Dahl in the year 2000. Today Salah is serving as director in Fairford and its portfolio companies, besides operating his MENA region investments from his office in Beirut.

Staffan has held senior executive positions in leading industry groups as AGA, Esselte, FFV, Cardo and Bombardier Transportation, working in Sweden and Belgium and with extensive international experience. He has been chairman in ProfilGruppen AB and Finnveden AB. He is elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA.

Thommy has worked in senior executive positions in retail companies in the last 35 years, including JC, Bata, MQ, KappAhl and others. Thommy has several board assignments such as Blåkläder and XL Bygg. Other historical assignments include Chairman of Kicks. During his career, Thommy has worked with several well-known investors including EQT, Valedo and Adelis in the role of Senior Advisor in companies such as XXL.

Val has over 40 years’ experience in the specialty chemical and lubricant industry, growing businesses organically and via M&A. He has experience as a president/CEO, as a business owner, as a director of companies located in Saudi Arabia, India, and Venezuela, and most recently as Vice President of Specialties for The Lubrizol Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.