Nils Svensson graduated from Linnaeus University mid 2014 with excellent grades particularly in finance.
His ability was already known by the finance community and short after his ground-breaking
thesis was published that covered volatility in British bond market offers came to him.
Barclays Bank gave him an offer he could not refuse and in September 2014 he moved to London
and took up a position as trading analyst at the banks intelligence unit. Nils became known as the
"innovative Swede" due to his phenomenal ability to apply theoretical models combined with a rare
sort of intuition. Early 2016 he was promoted to head of the unit and in 2018 WP financial services.
The renumeration package was very generous and financially he was set not least due to his own
investments in renewable energy.
It was then a chock in the finance community when he had announced that he was leaving. Nils
had grown up in a small village outside Alstermo and even if he loved everything that was British
he hated everything about living in a major city like London.
He was carefully approached by major head hunters who left disappointed as Nils was looking for
a CFO position at a company on the country side.
Early in November 2020 he got a call from Brandon Stone who was head of the branch of Barclays
in Watford. The bank had a customer that was in need of a "structured brain". Within a week a meeting
was set with John Stevenson also called "Blurry Joe". John is known for his excellence in engineering
but also for being somewhat disorganised. He and his wife, Annie, had built up a company, Ashridge Metal,
that produce and sell asymmetrical pumps that are used by chemical plants as well in nucellar installations.
In total the company employs 400 employees and is listed on the stock exchange in London.
The reputation of the company is very good when it comes to quality and deliveries. However from
the finance markets point of view the company was often named "Whimsy Dimsy Dime" as no one
knew what to expect. Looking at a graphical presentation of their profits over the last 10 years it looked
like a very dangerous roller coaster!
Johns view was that he and Annie was running the company on "guts feel" and that had served them
well. On the other hand the couple was aware of the risk being delisted from the stock market
due to erratic performance and lack of transparent information.
On top of everything the board was not happy especially not, Elenore Grant, who had been appointed
chairman mid 2020.
Nils was hesitant to take a position at the firm but driving back to London he passed Ashridge and
just stopped the car and left for a walk. Not knowing that here is one of the best places to study
business at Hult International Business School. Your teacher has attended classes there..
Now this in combination with the outstanding beauty of Hertfordshire he felt a passion coming
back to him - country side. A realtor just put a sign down- for sale. Nils started his car an called
upon the realtor and within a hour he was the owner of a property close to Ashridge House and
neighbour to Ashridge Golf Course.
He called John and Elenore and accepted the position. He was in for a ride!