In partnership with Goldman Sachs and Nordea Bank, we want to celebrate YOU — amazing women entrepreneurs and business owners, as we come together for our 1st annual Stockholm event to educate, inspire and create community amongst local business leaders and sellers.
Join Ladies Who Launch for an evening of thought-provoking speakers, learnings and best practices from our expert-led panel sessions, and a chance to connect and network with your fellow women entrepreneurs.
Nina has worked in Nordea since 2009 and within Business Banking since 2012. Nordea's Business Banking unit helps their clients with financing investments, investing access liquidity, automating processes, hedging interest, fx, and other risk etc.
Previously she worked with companies of the more traditional sense within real estate, industry, retail etc. In May 2018 the Start up & Growth unit was founded in Nordea. Nina is passionate about helping startups and fast growing company’s within tech with their banking.
Startup & Growth has specialized in banking for tech companies and thus they are able to provide relevant and qualitative advice as well as a deep understanding of their business models.
Stina is the Founder and CEO of the Swedish shoe brand Stinaa.J.
Stinaa.J combines design and European craftsmanship with orthopaedic innovation to create shoes that takes care of the woman walking in them.
The patented inside is a result from hundreds of thousand of 3D scanned feet, 30 years of experience and the world's most cushioning material, invented by NASA.
Tech entrepreneur, political advisor and investor Aurore Belfrage spends her time in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and international affairs.
She’s an Industrial Advisor to Europe’s leading PE house EQT, she’s a syndicated columnist with leading Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and a contributor to Politico, she writes, vlogs and hosts a podcast on pressing issues like the environment, geopolitics, ethics, governance and labor/future of work.
Born in London, raised partly there as well as in Saudi and Sweden, with previous lives in venture capital with EQT Ventures, scrap dealing at Stena Metall, speechwriting and attempts at stand up comedy.
Follow her on Twitter @aurorebelfrage or her blog iAubergine.com
Sophia is a Partner at Atomico focusing on Nordic sourcing activities. Based in Stockholm, she advises founders on communications and marketing strategy and scaling their brand. As an active player in Stockholm’s startup scene, Sophia also helps with sourcing and the evaluation of new investment opportunities.
Sophia was the Global Marketing Director at Spotify from 2007-2014, where she built out a strong consumer brand from scratch, while launching and marketing the service globally. Today she is an active angel investor and advisor to startups, and serves as a Board Director at Avanza, Kindred Group and non-profit organization Race For The Baltic. She is also a co-founder of non-profit foundation AllBright.se and has invested in start up’s such as Tictail, Clue, DogBuddy, Shim, Joints Academy, Search Inc, Bokio, DigiExam, Greta.io, Scout, Brighten, Prion, Simple Feast, and Sana Labs.
With hands on experience from building a brand, launching a product in 56+ markets and growing a team across different continents Sophia can relate to the joy and stress of life as an entrepreneur. The insights and experiences from her years at Spotify is something she’s happy to share as well as insights from the VC world on how to go about raising funds.
Sophia believes in working with people who share the same set of values and want to improve the world through innovation.
Stephanie is Goldman Sachs’ chief strategy officer and an ex officio member of the Management Committee. She is also a member of the Partnership Committee, Global Diversity Committee, Firmwide Enterprise Risk Committee and Firmwide Finance Committee. Stephanie leads Launch With GS, the firm’s first for-profit investing initiative with a gender lens. Prior to assuming her current role, she was global head of Financial Sponsor Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) in the Investment Banking Division (IBD).
Before that, Stephanie was sector captain for General Industrials in the Global Industrials Group and a member of the M&A Group in IBD. In 2008, she managed Conflicts and Business Selection for IBD in the Americas.
Prior to that, Stephanie was a vice president in the Industrials and Merger Leadership Groups in San Francisco. Earlier in her career, she worked in New York in the M&A department. Stephanie joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 1999, was named managing director in 2008 and partner in 2014.
Stephanie serves on the National Board of Directors of CollegeSpring and as a member of the Board of Quill.org. Stephanie earned a BS, summa cum laude, in Finance from the University of Illinois in 1998.
Stina is the CEO and Founder or Yubico, co-creator of the YubiKey authentication device and a driving force behind the FIDO/WebAuthn security standards to enable a safer internet for everyone.
The company's technology secures access to computers, servers and online services for nine of the top ten internet brands, including Google, Facebook and Salesforce, and is loved by millions of users in 160 countries.
She is a speaker on internet security and entrepreneurship, recognized with numerous international awards, and regularly featured in leading tech media. Born in Seattle, USA, Stina grew up in Sweden, studied industrial product design at college and have since 2011 lived in Palo Alto, California, with her husband and three children.
Sarah is Chief Executive Officer of Nextdoor, the world’s largest private social network for neighborhoods and Co-Founder of Ladies Who Launch.
Prior to Nextdoor, Sarah served as Chief Financial Officer at Square. Under Sarah’s leadership, the company launched its initial public offering in 2015 and added $30Bn in market cap.
Before her tenure at Square, Sarah served as Senior Vice President of Finance & Strategy at Salesforce. Sarah also held executive roles at Goldman Sachs, as well as leadership positions at McKinsey in both London and South Africa. Sarah sits on the boards of Walmart and Slack, and is currently the Board Vice-Chair of Spark, a nonprofit serving at-risk middle school students through mentorship. Sarah is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Finance Leaders Fellowship Program, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and Co-Founder of Ladies Who Launch, a network that mentors and inspires women entrepreneurs and business owners.
Sarah grew up in Northern Ireland and earned her MEng in Metallurgy, Economics, and Management from the University of Oxford and her MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she graduated as an Arjay Miller scholar.
Hanna is the head of Global Business Development and Sales of Houdini Sportswear, a progressive and rapidly growing Swedish outdoor brand and a trailblazer in corporate responsibility.
Since 2001, Hanna together with a team of likeminded, have been redesigning business to become a force for good – providing state-of-the-art circular products, offering product-as-a-service solutions and building a co-creative community for open-source innovation, sharing knowledge and inspiring to reconnect to nature.
Rather than focusing on Houdini's outstanding track record in sustainable development, Hanna emphasizes the journey ahead and the untapped opportunities and abundant value in designing attractive and regenerative lifestyle solutions.
www.houdinisportswear.com
Annika is responsible for Equity Capital Markets globally at Nordea Bank. She is a managing director and part of the diversity initiatives and discussions at Nordea Bank.
Annika graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics in 1997 and has since then worked for 22 years in the financial industry within Investment Banking / Equity Capital Markets.
Annika joined Nordea Bank in 2013 as head of Equity Capital Markets Sweden. She was named managing director in 2016 and took over the global responsibility for Nordea’s Equity Capital Markets division. During the first 5 years of her career she worked as an investment banker focusing on the TMT sector (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) both in Stockholm and in London. In 2002, she moved over to Equity Capital Markets and has since then done numerous Initial Public Offerings, sell-downs and capital raisings with Nordic and European companies. Annika is one of very few female senior Equity Capital Markets bankers in Europe.
Anna is responsible for covering private equity clients in the United Kingdom for the Financial and Strategic Investors Group (FSIG) within the Investment Banking Division (IBD). She is a managing director ally of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network. Anna is also an investment champion for Launch With GS, the firm's first for-profit investing initiative with a gender lens.
Anna joined Goldman Sachs in 1996 as a financial analyst in the Credit Department in London. She moved to the Communication, Media and Technology Group in IBD in 1998, working on equity, debt and mergers and acquisitions transactions for telecommunications and media clients throughout Europe. In 2002, Anna transferred to the Consumer Retail Group to cover a number of consumer and retail sectors and spent time in the Consumer Retail Group in New York in 2008. She moved to FSIG in 2012. She was named managing director in 2007 and partner in 2018.
Anna earned a BA in International Business Administration from the European Business School in 1996.
Anna took her first running steps at age 38. These steps encouraged her to keep challenging herself all the way to a first-place finish in the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon – the world's toughest one-day race.
Her exclusive sports brand Power Woman was created out of the same determination. By women – for women. This is a brand where style and glamour aren’t sacrificed for extreme challenges, but rather add to the strength and power you need to face them.
Nina founded Wesport in 2014 and currently serves as the company's CEO. Nina has over 15 years of experience within the international sports management industry and has throughout her career recruited and represented some of the best athletes in the world.
Further Nina is the first Swedish licensed hockey agent in the history and also the second female licensed football agent in Swedish history.
Nina graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in 2005. As a tennis player, Nina was the Swedish Champion for women twice (2000 and 2002).
In 2005 Nina joined one of the biggest sport management firms in the world, American firm Octagon.
After nine years in the business Nina started her own sports agency, Wesport.
At Wesport Nina could run her own business with a rentless focus on helping athletes reach their maximum potential. Today Wesport represent 50 clients in tennis, hockey MMA and football.
