His name was Piiter, with English pronunciations . It was so his mother, Dorothy Mackay – of Scottish banking nobility – called him the first few years she got to have his boys with him. When she and Marcus Wallenberg differed took the little girl Dorothy Ann-Mari and moved back to England. But the brothers Peter, then eight, and Marc, ten, remained in Sweden; it was the father Marcus strict requirements.
Then it just became more sporadic contacts with mother – a major blow in the young Peter’s life. He missed her presence and vocal moments together.
“In the beginning it was incredibly hard, told Peter Wallenberg in a newspaper interview (Month stores 1986). Then came the war and we were completely isolated from each other. England was bombed and I did not know what had happened to her, even if she was alive. “
” It had its effects on me, “said Wallenberg, who could not see her mother for six years.
He called his father “cruel” when he was younger – but then changed its mind to “very demanding”. And he was daily reminded of how inept he was. Favorite Son Marc got the same strict upbringing: all that was weakness would be pushed down.
“My childhood gave me the calluses of the soul, and they are not so stupid to have sometimes,” was Wallenberg’s own conclusion.
Dad Marcus, “Dori” in the family, married in 1936. That same year, Peter – called “Pirre” – at Sigtuna boarding school, where other Wallenberg had been drilled before him. Big brother Marc, nicknamed “Boy-boy,” went there already.
Peter graduated from high school in 1944, during World War II.
He did not go the Naval Academy, as other burger before him. Nor practicing on family bank, Stockholms Enskilda. This is despite his father had Marcus never forget.
As a rookie LL.B., he began in 1953 to work on Wallenberg-owned Atlas Copco in Nacka (then Atlas Diesel), where the father was chairman of the board. Peter would be the seller, but had to start down to the shop floor to mount the rock drills.
The same summer Promised he married 20-year-old Suzanne Grevillius, the doctor’s daughter from Finspång. And were married the following year. 1956 born Jacob, their first child.
Wallenberg sent across the Atlantic to sell Atlas compressors on the US east coast. Where are born Andrea (1957) and finally Peter Junior (Stockholm, 1959).
A few years later moved Wallenberg for Southern Africa; he becomes President of Atlas subsidiary in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia) and later for the company in the Congo, in the midst of a raging civil war.
Self called his time in Africa for “the blood-and-guts years “the hard years – so hard to Suzanne and the kids leave home early.
The next item is London, where Wallenberg leads Atlas British company for five years. There he can see her mother, Lady Dorothy, more regularly.
1967 called Peter W home to Sweden and a management post at Atlas Copco, who is his father’s favorite businesses. A few years later he takes the place of the Board of Stockholms Enskilda Bank, the family bank where big brother Marc is CEO and father Marcus Chairman.
“It is possible that he may act as some sort of Industry of the Wallenberg empire” Aftonbladet when the then unknown Peter Wallenberg enters the spring 1969th
Then Peter inside his father’s force field again after 13 years abroad, accustomed to take care of itself. And used to using English words.
“It annoyed dad so pissed, he scolded me on several occasions. Do you not to talk to foreign! “, Says Peter W in the television documentary” Wallenberg “2007.
But it’s the brother Marc that the press is greatest – too big would it turned out. Late autumn 1971 running Wallenberg empire’s crown prince into the woods and shoot himself, 47 years old. A few months earlier Enskilda Banken merged with the much larger Skandinaviska Banken – a deal that shattered family.
“I was sitting with my brother two hours before he killed himself, and I did not notice a thing. A total mystery to this day, “said Peter Wallenberg of the Month Trades 1996.
” Marc had never shown anything for me – never. And we were very good friends. “
Suddenly it was Peter who was the heir, Crown Prince. But for Dad Marcus, he was almost a duffer; so Peter must quickly schooled in his new role – through board seats in the sphere companies and the Wallenberg The power company Investor and Providentia. And he needs to read up on other industries and companies.
At the same time (1972) begins the first cardiac problems.
1974 stamps he charged from Atlas Copco – after 21 years – to become “industrial advisor” on SE-Banken, in his father’s house at King’s Garden in Stockholm. And the same spring he may take over as Chairman of Atlas Copco after his father. Later, he is also a board position in more W-tagged big corporations such as Saab-Scania, Asea, LM Ericsson and SKF (1977).
1980 was elevated Peter Wallenberg Vice Chairman of SE-Banken (when his uncle Jacob died ). In his room on the third floor, he sat and waited for their turn – or was it bad luck? – “A back-room boy”, as he called himself then (Aftonbladet, 18 Sept. 1981).
In September 1982 was D-Day – as in death. Dad Marcus, who has been ill since the beginning of the year, died at the age of 82. Full official Sweden, including the King and Queen, President, Prime Minister and business leaders attended the funeral in St. Jacob’s Church opposite the SE-Bank’s headquarters. It was almost a state funeral.
Peter, who was 56 years old, knew that he would never be able to fill the void left by the great Marcus Wallenberg, industrial prince. Plus they had never pulled evenly, father and son. Marcus could speak disparagingly about Peter in front of others.
So great was “Doddes” disbelief that he towards the end made up secretly with Volvo chief Mr Gyllenhammar that Volvo would have to buy into the Stora Kopparberg and Atlas Copco Two of Wallenberg’s most important companies. And it got Peter, Chairman of Atlas, know first when the old man was gone. “MW” – which he also called – clearly had more confidence in the kids ‘PG’ as heir than his son.
Not only that: it was the grandson Marcus who inherited the Bishop Kannan, the silver jug symbolizing power within the dynasty. Marc’s son also enjoyed the tennis racket as “Dori” had been given by Bjorn Borg. And the family estate Vidbynäs at Nynashamn.
Peter had to settle for sailboat Regina – if he wanted it. Otherwise, the reduced “during the taking of Dom Pérignon,” as Marcus W. wrote in an addendum to his will.
For Peter, it was even a slap in the face from beyond the grave .
But it was Peter who inherited his father’s highest power positions: Chairman of Investor and Providentia – as controlled companies worth nearly half the Stockholm Stock Exchange – and the “Foundation”, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Research Foundation, which is the cornerstone of family empire. These three items have always been wedded for a burger.
“Dori” was dead, but he looked still down at his son from a portrait in the “Room No. 1,” Marcus office of the SE banking Palace on Kungsträdgårdsgatan .
“I can not recall that he ever said, ‘You did good’, says Peter W in the TV documentary.
It was hard in the beginning; Peter Wallenberg was condemned by analysts and the press as inept, incompetent for its important role. The whole time he was in conjunction with her father, the celebrated industrialist. And with PG Gyllenhammar, the confident, globetrotter and smarte strategist, the Swedish business sector new king. Peter clenched and let himself cured. But the press – in a double sense – strengthened him, he explained much later:
“I got great help of some bark articles that talked about how bad and worthless I was. It cemented me in the belief that never in hell should they get right. But I was not talking about it! “He said. (SvD March 1998)
1984 bought back Investor Volvo’s shares in Atlas Copco and Stora Kopparberg. It was a costly affair for Wallenberg, but he did anyway sit in the boardroom as Gyllenhammar.
As time grew Peter Wallenberg into his role. Unlike his authoritarian father, he could delegate – and listen and trust others. New times and new problems require new and larger visions. And then came his exports know-how and foreign contacts handy.
He strengthened the grip of the Investor and Providentia and increased the sphere of ownership in the strategically important companies Asea, Astra and Saab-Scania. Rapidly rising stock prices, currency devaluations and good stock trades made her to. Wallenberg sphere grew stronger; and their voting A shares hedged control.
Under Peter Wallenberg grow Great to the world’s third largest forestry group. Electrolux devour appliance competitors worldwide. Astra launches ulcer medicine Losec, which becomes a worldwide success, Ericsson invests in mobile telephony. And Asea merged to ABB, the Swedish-Swiss electrical engineering giant.
After six years on the throne, Peter Wallenberg won the respect and strengthened their hold on the hereditary monarchy. Headlines such as “emperor has clothes” and “The ugly duckling has become a swan” appeared in business publications.
“It is with us Wallenbergare as with Bernadottes, we developed late,” he explained himself in Expressen ( Sept 1988).
But there were some who dared to challenge “Peter the Great”: financier Wictor Forss tried to buy into the Providentia spring of 1987, but was quickly ousted. Trelleborg went into the SKF 1988, but was quickly resolved by the Wallenberg were.
Sven-Olof Johansson, another financier, purchased a share of Saab-Scania, Wallenberg The crown jewel, 1989 and demanded a seat on the board. The cover of Business Week, Johansson in boxing gloves, said to have done Wallenberg was furious. But the challenger won the game; Wallenberg was forced to bail out Johansson – who did make billions – and then took Saab-Scania from the stock exchange (1991).
But then came the Swedish banking and real estate crisis – and the Swedish chronic crisis in autumn 1992. Then-Bank close to being cracked and taken over by the state, which opened the “Bank ER” (Bankstödsnämnden).
– But we made a rights issue of SEK 10 billion. It was the shareholders who saved the bank, not the state, emphasizes Peter W in the TV documentary.
Investor, the heartland in the Wallenberg sphere, were eventually forced to sell large blocks of shares to cope with its debt burden .
But even there own heart, “pump” as he said, took a beating. 1991 the situation became acute; Wallenberg was down in his summer house in southern France. From there he was flown in haste to the US for a by-pass operation. “I was damn trouble” he told the Month Stores (1996).
Four years earlier (1987), he was also close to dying. As a newly elected president of the Federation of Industry led Wallenberg, a Swedish business delegation to China. In Shanghai he had a heart attack. The guest of honor was flown in haste to the operation in Hong Kong, the British crown colony.
He blamed the malaria he got in Africa 30 years ago. But stress, obesity, business dinners and chain-smoking did much to.
Peter Wallenberg had a good party mood, say those who attended. He had a loud laugh flat and a noisy jargon that was well spiced with expletives. He was not used to guard his tongue and weighing his words. But the forthright style as he ran among his closest was a disadvantage in contact with journalists.
The most famous klavertrampen concerned South Africa and the Swedish (S) -regeringens support to the black struggle against the apartheid regime.
“I wonder what we would think if someone sat down and poked a lot of loot to the patches so that they could get up to a lot of trouble for the Swedish government,” said Peter Wallenberg 1992 on Sweden’s support to ANC- the party.
The Swedish trade boycott against South Africa meant that Wallenberg companies lost the business.
In the autumn of 1994 – the same year that Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa – spoke Wallenberg in a television interview about “blacks” in South Africa. Then he was forced to apologize publicly and blamed his unaccustomed television interviews.
For many, Peter Wallenberg – in his prime – the epitome of an old-fashioned capitalist: big belly , fat cigar, self-righteous, rich and powerful. But of course he never spoke about power: “Power? The word has a very negative connotation. We call it responsibility, “he said in an SVD interview.
One summer evening in 1993, he was reminded of its value. When arrested four armed men outside his home, Brevik’s Farm in Värmdö. They would kidnap the Swedish industrialist – on behalf of the Russian mafioso, it emerged at the trial. $ 10 million was the intended ransom. “Finally someone who understands how important I am,” was Wallenberg galghumoristiska comment.
Chance wanted the US then President George Bush Sr. – the discreet visit to Sweden – had eaten lunch at Brevik same day. Therefore, the police guard on top.
But everything was carefully prepared: Wallenberg should be brought to an uninhabited island in the archipelago and then on to St. Petersburg. It is uncertain whether the heart sick Wallenberg had survived these hardships.
– He had not passed 24 hours without their medications, says a family friend.
In May 1996, filled Peter Wallenberg 70 years; great reception on the cover cape on Djurgården, in the grand old family residence. Prime Minister Göran Persson was one of the first to woo the anniversary – “in the name of the people”, Aftonbladet.
The family gathered around his Pater familias and “Sphere” top executives celebrated its patriarch: “Pirre, you’re doyen of Swedish industrial enterprise”. After 14 years at the helm was “incompetent” got his revenge.
could now begin to Peter W sit back, downsize their commitment and directorships. In the spring of 1997 he handed over the gavel of Investor to Percy Barnevik, the former ABB boss, chosen as Europe’s best business two years in a row by the Financial Times.
It was the first time that any outsider sat on the chair in Investor. But even then it was clear that Barnevik was only a trustee until the new generation Wallenberg, cousins Marcus and Jacob, was equal to the task.
Five years later explodes a bomb in Peter Wallenberg knee: ABB’s new leadership reveals that Percy Barnevik would get 930 M to retire from his time at ABB. And that ABB’s success was based more on creative accounting than on profitable business.
“When his story was all at ABB it was that the company was on the edge of insolvency,” said Peter W in TV -dokumentären.
Barnevik got fired from Investor directly. And overnight became the acclaimed Barnevik a miser in the public eye. Peter Wallenberg also received a portion of reproach; During his time as Chairman of ABB (1991-96), it was he – and his Swiss colleague – who approved the Children’s secret schemes. Wallenberg was confident that his colleague would handle the matter “in relation to what was common in Switzerland,” said Peter W in the television film.
At the same time, it became known that Wallenberg was lifted large amount of pension, 14- SEK 15 million per year, from Investor, where he was honorary president. The business press spoke of “an appanage” and wondered what Peter Wallenberg had done to deserve this a million pension.
The TV documentary explores Peter Wallenberg about his bad relationship with his father. Not even when death approached for Marcus came to no reconciliation or any opening. “Never, never,” said Peter W. sadly.
Close-ups of the old man, white-haired, skinny and bony hands around his pipe, aroused pity, did the mighty more human. Agitator in his soul was visible to everyone.
Did Peter Wallenberg in God? Yes.
“But perhaps it is not God, maybe it’s a monster up there. What do I know? But there is something that affects us, which not only saves us but also make sure that we get into trouble and get a slap in the face every now and then. ” (Month Trades 1996)
It sounds like the punitive father.
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