Structure
The three largest Foundations – Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation jointly own FAM AB, an unlisted company whose purpose is to own and manage its direct holdings, and function as an active owner with a long-term commitment.
The three Foundations also have substantial holdings in the listed company Investor AB, which is a leading owner of international companies, most of them with Swedish roots.
Active engagement in these companies forms the basis for the Wallenberg family’s commitments, and it is this long-term involvement in the international operating companies that enables the Foundations to award funding of just over SEK 2.2 billion each year for Swedish research and education.
Dividends on the holdings are used to fund research and education grants.
AB SKF is a Swedish bearing and seal manufacturing company founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1907. The company manufactures and supplies bearings, seals, lubrication and lubrication systems, maintenance products, mechatronics products, power transmission products, condition monitoring systems and related services globally.
A foundation is a type of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that usually provides funding and support to other charitable organizations through grants, while also potentially participating directly in charitable activities. Foundations encompass public charitable foundations, like community foundations, and private foundations, which are often endowed by an individual or family. Nevertheless, the term "foundation" might also be adopted by organizations not primarily engaged in public grantmaking.
The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats, present in most large Swedish industrial groups, like Ericsson, Electrolux, ABB, SAS Group, SKF, AIK, Atlas Copco, Saab AB, and more. In the 1970s, the Wallenberg family businesses employed 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market.
Kinnevik AB is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families.
The Axel Johnson Group is a Swedish family-owned company run by the fourth and fifth generation of family owners. It traces its origins to the trading company A. Johnson & Co, founded in 1873. The group consists of four legally and financially independent groups with a common owner, Antonia Ax:son Johnson and her family. In addition, the group has proprietary interests in Nordstjernan, which in turn has major interests in other companies, including the listed company NCC.
Carnegie Investment Bank AB is a Swedish financial services group with activities in securities brokerage, investment banking and private banking.
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) is a Swedish public and private foundation formed in 1917 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg and his wife Alice Wallenberg. It was created to support research in the natural sciences, technology and medicine by awarding long-term grants to basic research of the highest international class.
Until 1969, the term private foundation was not defined in the United States Internal Revenue Code. Since then, every U.S. charity that qualifies under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code as tax-exempt is a "private foundation" unless it demonstrates to the IRS that it falls into another category such as public charity. Unlike nonprofit corporations classified as a public charity, private foundations in the United States are subject to a 1.39% excise tax or endowment tax on any net investment income.
Foundation Asset ManagementAB is a Swedish asset management company, founded by the three largest Wallenberg foundations in order to manage their assets, by means of direct ownership as well as through management and consultancy agreements. The administration of these foundations and their donations is handled through a subsidiary. “Wallenberg foundations” is an informal collective name for the twenty different foundations founded by members of the Wallenberg family.
Jacob Wallenberg is a Swedish banker and industrialist from the Wallenberg family who currently serves as a board member for multiple companies. He was described by The Guardian as a “prince in Sweden's royal family of finance”.
Novo Holdings A/S is the Novo Nordisk Foundation's wholly owned holding company for Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S. Novo Holdings A/S was established in 1999 and manages the Novo Nordisk Foundation's assets, which in 2023 was worth almost DKK 1,114 billion. Danish Kroner and is the largest charitable foundation in the world making Novo Holdings A/S a world-leading life sciences investor. Novo Holdings A/S is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with offices in San Francisco, Boston and Singapore.
Marcus Laurentius Wallenberg, Sr. was a Swedish banker and industrialist. He was CEO of Stockholms Enskilda Bank (SEB) from 1911 to 1920.
Peter “Poker” Åke Wallenberg is a Swedish businessman, chair of eight of the sixteen public and private foundations formed by the Wallenberg family or established in memory of family members. The foundations, which are known collectively as the Wallenberg Foundations, annually award funding of approximately SEK 2.2 billion, largely for research and education at Swedish universities.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an international enterprise foundation focusing on medical treatment and research.
Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC) is a research institute based at the Department of ecology and environmental science (EMG) at Umeå University, Sweden, but primarily operative at Abisko Scientific Research Station which is run by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.
Jacob "Juju" Wallenberg was a Swedish banker and industrial leader. Wallenberg held various central positions in Stockholms Enskilda Bank. He was also chairman of the board of several companies, including Stora Kopparbergs Bergslag and Orkla Mining Company. From 1934 to 1944 he was a member of the Swedish governmental commission for trade with Germany.
Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation was formed with a donation from the banker Jacob Wallenberg in 1960. The original donation was SEK 442,000.
Enterprise foundations are foundations that own companies.
Pandox AB is a hotel property company. The company engages in ownership and management of hotel property. Pandox leases its hotel properties to hotel operators or runs hotel operations in its own hotel properties. Pandox owns 159 hotel properties, with a total of approximately 35,900 hotel rooms. The hotel properties are located in 12 countries.
Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), launched in 2015, is Sweden’s largest individual research program.
