Michael Treschow
Not to be confused with Michael Treschow (til Fritzøe), a member of the Norwegian-Danish noble Treschow family.
| Michael Treschow | |
|---|---|
| Born | Niels Michael Aage Treschow 22 April 1943 Helsingborg, Skåne län, Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Education | Lund University (Lund Institute of Technology), engineering |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Employer | Atlas Copco, Electrolux, Ericsson, Unilever |
| Title | Former chairman, Ericsson; former chairman, Unilever; former chairman, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise |
| Known for | Chairing Electrolux, Ericsson and Unilever |
Niels Michael Aage Treschow (born 22 April 1943) is a Swedish businessman and civil engineer. Over the course of his career Treschow rose from an engineering graduate to chief executive of two of Sweden's largest industrial companies, Atlas Copco and Electrolux, before moving into board chairmanships at Ericsson, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the consumer goods group Unilever. Sources describe Treschow as one of the more influential figures in Swedish business of his era.
Treschow's career combined operational leadership, as chief executive of Atlas Copco and then Electrolux, with a long second phase as a non-executive chairman across several large companies and organisations. He also holds board and honorary positions connected to Swedish industrial research and to Swedes living abroad. Across the different language editions of his biography, Treschow's full name is consistently given as Niels Michael Aage Treschow, his birthplace as Helsingborg, and his birth year as 1943, the sole exception being an Arabic-language source that gives 1983, a figure contradicted by every other source consulted.
Early life and education
Treschow was born on 22 April 1943 in Helsingborg, in the Swedish county of Skåne län. His father, Gert Treschow, was a major in the Swedish Army; his mother, Ulla Wrangel von Brehmer, is described in Swedish-language sources as a baroness. Treschow himself trained as a reserve officer, qualifying on 1 October 1968 and being promoted to captain on 1 July 1972 while attached to the Scanian Dragoon Regiment, P2.
Treschow studied engineering at Lund University, graduating from what was then the Lund Institute of Technology with a degree in engineering.
Career
Bahco and Atlas Copco, 1970 to 1991
Treschow began his career in 1970 at the tool manufacturer Bahco, where he held a number of different positions. In 1975 he moved to Atlas Copco, the Swedish industrial equipment maker, and in 1991 Treschow was appointed its president and chief executive officer.
Electrolux, from the late 1990s to 2007
Treschow left Atlas Copco to lead Electrolux, the Swedish home appliance manufacturer, as president and chief executive officer. German-language sources date his tenure in that role from 1997 to 2002; Swedish-language sources instead place his move to Electrolux in 1998, with his time as chief executive running to 2002. After stepping down as chief executive, Treschow remained with Electrolux as chairman of the board, a position from which he resigned in April 2007.
Ericsson, 2002 to 2011
In 2002 Treschow became chairman of the board of Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications equipment company, a position he held until 2011.
Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, 2004 to 2007
Treschow was elected chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), an organisation representing the interests of Sweden's larger companies, and served in that role from 2004 to 2007. During the same year that his chairmanship began, 2004, Treschow was also instrumental in establishing the Swedish branch of the non-profit organisation SIFE Sverige.
Unilever, from 2007
In 2007 Treschow succeeded Antony Burgmans as chairman of the board of Unilever, becoming the company's first independent, non-executive chairman. Sources disagree on how long he held the post: German- and Arabic-language sources give 2016 as the year he left the position, while an English-language source instead states 2023. Alongside the Unilever chairmanship, Treschow has also served on the board of the industrial group ABB and on the supervisory board of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Other board and civic roles
Since February 2011 Treschow has chaired the board of the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Since August 2011 he has chaired the association Svenskar i Världen (Swedes in the World, known as Sviv), a role in which he has campaigned for a dedicated parliamentary constituency for Swedes living abroad, setting out the case in a debate article published in Dagens Nyheter on 15 August 2014. On 8 July 2007 Treschow appeared as a summer presenter on the Sveriges Radio network P1.
Honours
Treschow is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, to which he was elected in 2002. He holds the Legion of Honour at the rank of Chevalier, awarded in 2002, and the Swedish Armed Forces' reserve officer medal in gold, awarded in 2003. He has also received the King's Medal in gold of the twelfth size, on the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim, awarded in 2000, and the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, also awarded in 2000.
Personal life
Treschow has been married twice. In 1973 he married Christine-Charlotte Treschow, née Gyllenkrok. Since 2005 he has been married to Lena Treschow Torell, through whom he became the brother-in-law of the author Gunilla Bergström and a co-owner of the family company that manages the rights to her Alfons Åberg children's book character. Treschow has two children, Adam Treschow and Adéle Treschow.
Assessment
Treschow's career follows a route common among senior Swedish executives of his generation: an engineering degree from Lund University, followed by decades inside industrial companies, and then a later shift into non-executive chairmanships. His record is notable for its breadth. Treschow led two large industrial companies, Atlas Copco and Electrolux, as chief executive, and then chaired the boards of Electrolux, Ericsson and Unilever in turn, together with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, giving him an unusually wide view of both Swedish and international business from the chairman's seat rather than the chief executive's office.
The two halves of Treschow's career are clearly divided by date. His executive period ran for roughly a decade, from his appointment as Atlas Copco's chief executive in 1991 to his departure from the same post at Electrolux around 2002. Everything that followed, the Ericsson chairmanship, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise chairmanship, the Unilever chairmanship, and his roles at the IFN and Sviv, was non-executive: Treschow set direction and oversaw management rather than running day-to-day operations himself. That shift from operator to chairman is itself a common late-career pattern among Swedish industrialists, and Treschow's version of it is distinguished mainly by how many boards he came to sit at the head of, rather than by any single, defining achievement.
The available sources do not record sustained public criticism of Treschow's record as an executive or chairman. They do, however, disagree on the exact year he joined Electrolux, 1997 or 1998. One source gives 2023 for the end of his Unilever chairmanship, but Unilever announced in February 2016 that Marijn Dekkers would succeed him, and he retired at the 2016 annual general meetings having served the company's customary maximum of nine years as chairman. This is worth noting as a limit on the certainty of an otherwise well-documented career, rather than as a criticism of Treschow himself.