Delivering Responsible Investment in Sweden

Göran Espelund, MBA ’87, had options as a Fulbright Scholar from Sweden. He received offers from five U.S. programs, but he chose the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business for its close-knit community and proximity to Washington, D.C.

“Getting my MBA here was life-changing,” he says. “That learning experience and camaraderie are with me still today.” 

He remembers cramming with his classmates for case competitions. “We worked around the clock and got to present our solutions before distinguished panels of judges,” he says.

Espelund also recalls the mentorship he received from professors, who pushed him to participate in class. “I could barely speak in front of people coming here,” he says. “I improved a lot.”

Most of all, Espelund credits Maryland Smith for introducing him to his wife, Cristina (Mencia) Espelund ’85, MBA ’88.

After finishing their overlapping graduate programs, the couple settled in Sweden. Cristina Espelund runs a business consulting firm, while Göran Espelund works as a fund manager.

In 2000 he and his partners launched Lannebo Fonder, an active equity management firm that helps clients beat the market while staying true to the principles of responsible investment. “Being an investment manager in a European context, that’s pretty much all our clients talk about,” he says.

The challenge is defining what it means to be sustainable and finding the right metrics to measure success.

“We’re in the middle of a big discussion about shareholder and stakeholder value,” Espelund says. “Traditional metrics come from accounting. We know our income statements and our balance sheets. But we don’t have the same kind of metrics yet for measuring environmental, social and governance impact.”

Espelund says many of the answers will come from the rising generation, which is why he stays engaged at Smith as a donor and member of the school’s volunteer Board of Advisors.

“My advice for students learning about sustainability today is to take in as much as you can,” he says. “You are actually the ones who will solve these problems. It’s going to take time, but they will be solved. You are the solution.”

Espelund’s own learning journey started in Kalmar, Sweden, a coastal town on the Baltic Sea.

He got interested in capital markets at an early age and wrote his high school thesis on how the New York Stock Exchange works. “For me it’s been a dream come true to be in this field,” he says.

Espelund first visited the United States as an exchange student near Detroit, which allowed him to practice his English. When he returned as a Fulbright Scholar — after finishing an undergraduate degree in finance and accounting at Linköping University — the Washington region was at the top of his list.

“I visited here as an exchange student,” he says. “I just loved this area.”

He returns now with his wife to visit his in-laws, and also to participate in board meetings at Smith. “As a member of the Smith community,” he says, “I’m getting more than I’m possibly giving.”

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