Hans Rausing

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Hans Rausing
Hans Rausing with Tetra Brik, 1963
Born(1926-03-25)25 March 1926
Gothenburg, Sweden
Died30 August 2019(2019-08-30) (aged 93)
London, England
NationalitySwedish
Alma materLund University
Occupation(s)Businessman, philanthropist
Known forTetra Pak
SpouseMärit Rausing
ChildrenLisbet, Sigrid, and Hans Kristian Rausing
ParentRuben Rausing

Hans Anders Rausing, KBE[1] (25 March 1926 – 30 August 2019) was a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist based in the United Kingdom. He made his fortune from his co-inheritance of Tetra Pak, a company founded by his father Ruben Rausing, and the largest food packaging company in the world.[2][3] In the early 1980s Rausing moved to the United Kingdom to avoid Swedish taxes,[4] in 1995 he sold his share of the company to his brother, Gad. In the Forbes world fortune ranking, Rausing was placed at number 83 with an estimated fortune of US$10 billion in 2011.[5] According to Forbes, he was the second richest Swedish billionaire in 2013. By the time of his death in August 2019, Forbes estimated the net worth of Rausing and his family to be $12 billion.[1]

Early life[edit]

Rausing was born in Gothenburg in 1926, the second son of industrialist Ruben Rausing and his wife Elisabeth (née Varenius).[6] Rausing had two brothers, Gad and Sven.[7]

Career[edit]

Rausing studied Economics, Statistics and Russian at Lund University, graduating in 1948.[8] In 1954, Rausing was appointed managing director of Tetra Pak and his brother Gad deputy managing director.[9] Rausing became chairman in 1985.[9] He left the company in 1993, and sold his 50% share of the company to Gad in 1995.[10]

Tetra Pak's success in the 1970s and 1980s has been credited to the leadership of Hans and Gad Rausing, who turned the six-person family business into a multinational company.[10] Over the course of his career, Rausing became a specialist in Russian affairs and made many investments in Russia and Ukraine.[5] He was responsible for Tetra Pak's Russian market, and negotiated the first Tetra Pak machine export to the Soviet Union in 1959, eventually making Tetra Pak the largest foreign employer in Russia.[11]

Patronage[edit]

Hans Rausing and his wife Märit donated large sums to charities and research in the UK and Sweden, among others to large medical research projects at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University.[12][13] Through the Märit and Hans Rausing Fund, they supported local community projects in their home county of Sussex.[14]

Through her fund Arcadia, Rausing's daughter Lisbet is financing the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, the Hans Rausing Scholarship in the History of Science at King's College London, and the Hans Rausing Chair in the History of Science at Uppsala University, which is also hosting an annual Hans Rausing Lecture in the History of Science.[15][16][17] The University of Cambridge Department of History and Philosophy of Science hosts an Annual Hans Rausing Lecture.[18]

Honours and UK tax status[edit]

Hans Rausing received an honorary doctorate from Lund University.[19] He was a visiting professor at Mälardalens Högskola, Sweden, and honorary professor at the University of Dubna, Russia.[20] He was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2006.[21] He was an honorary fellow of the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, and in 2011 was made an honorary freeman and liveryman at the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London.[22] An article in the Guardian described how Hans Rausing had taken advantage of the UK's "remittance basis" of taxation to reduce his UK tax exposure while UK resident.[23] In 2002, for example, he earned income of around £225M but, according to the report, he incurred UK income tax on only £1M of it, because most of it arose outside the UK and therefore, because he did not "remit" it to the UK, the remittance basis meant he did not incur UK tax on it.

Personal life[edit]

Hans Rausing and his wife Märit Rausing had two daughters, Lisbet and Sigrid, and one son, Hans Kristian Rausing.[7]

From 2001 to 2012, Rausing and his family donated £886,000 to the UK's Conservative Party.[24]

Rausing was a resident of the UK from 1982 until his death.[25] He lived at The New House, Wadhurst Park, East Sussex, until his death on 30 August 2019.[26][27][6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Hans Rausing & family". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2019
  2. ^ Yang Ning, "Creating a Benchmark for Recycling Rubbish" Archived 22 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine, China Daily, 20 June 2011, retrieved 7 November 2011.
  3. ^ "Tetra Pak launches next generation cheese production unit" Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Packaging Europe News, 11 November 2011, retrieved 11 November 2011.
  4. ^ "Hans Rausing & family". Forbes.
  5. ^ a b "Hans Rausing: Tetra Pak Swedish packaging billionaire dies aged 93". Sky News. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019
  6. ^ a b Jedeur-Palmgren, Max. "Swedish Packaging Billionaire Hans Rausing Dies At 93". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019
  7. ^ a b "Sveriges näst rikaste Hans Rausing är död". Veckans affärer. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019
  8. ^ Leander, Lars, Tetra Pak. A Vision Becomes Reality. A company history with a difference, Lund: Tetra Pak International, 1996 (ISBN 91-630-4789-6), p. 33.
  9. ^ a b Leander (1996), p. 29.
  10. ^ a b Frederick C. Ingram, "Tetra Pak International SA" Archived 20 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, International Directory of Company Histories, 2003. Encyclopedia.com, retrieved 22 July 2016.
  11. ^ Hans Rausing European Business Forum, retrieved 4 November 2011.
  12. ^ Hans and Märit Rausing Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Karolinska Institutet, retrieved 4 November 2011.
  13. ^ Hans Rausing Medicine Hedersdoktor Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Lund University, retrieved 4 November 2011.
  14. ^ Professor and Mrs Hans Rausing Archived 6 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Sussex Community Foundation, retrieved 4 November 2011.
  15. ^ The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project Archived 23 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, retrieved 7 November 2011.
  16. ^ The Hans Rausing Scholarship in History of Science Archived 17 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Imperial College, retrieved 7 November 2011.
  17. ^ The Hans Rausing Lectures Archived 3 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Uppsala University, retrieved 7 November 2011.
  18. ^ Annual Hans Rausing Lecture Archived 29 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge.
  19. ^ "Tetra Pak billionaire Hans Rausing dies at 93". BBC News. 30 August 2019. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019
  20. ^ Hans Rausing European Business Forum, retrieved 4 November 2011
  21. ^ "Honorary Knighthoods Awarded 1997–2006". Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  22. ^ "Honorary Fellowship of the Isaac Newton Institute | Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences". www.newton.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019
  23. ^ [1] The Guardian, 11 Apr 2002, How the richest man in Britain avoids tax
  24. ^ Manning, Sanchez (14 June 2012). "A quarter of the UK's richest people give money to the Conservative Party". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  25. ^ "Rausing family values: the dark side of a dynasty" Archived 31 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 11 April 2008, retrieved 10 November 2011.
  26. ^ Nick Davies, "Playing the System" Archived 27 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 11 April 2002, retrieved 10 November 2011.
  27. ^ Nyheter, S. V. T. (30 August 2019). "Hans Rausing avliden". SVT Nyheter. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019 – via www.svt.se.

External links[edit]

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