Director general Gustav Rosenlew died in Helsinki at the age of 94 on December 8, 2023. He was born in Helsinki on March 13, 1929.
Rosenlew spent his childhood in the Suontaa manor owned by his grandfather in the Hämeenlinna region, where his father Sven-Erik worked as a farm manager. Rosenlew got a natural and safe foundation for his life there.
Rosenlew moved with his family to Pori when his father was elected in 1943 as the director of the Rosenlew company. He graduated from Björneborgs Svenska Samskolan in 1947, continued his studies at TKK and graduated with a master's degree in paper technology in 1954.
Ligaments connected him to the Rosenlew company founded in 1853. His 40-year career began at the foundry of the Pori machine shop in the fall of 1947. In 1954, he started as a technical secretary at the Rosenlew paper mill, and in 1961 he was elected director of the chemical wood processing industry.
In 1969, Rosenlew succeeded his father as CEO, for which he first, according to his own wishes, attended a 13-week “fast business college” in the United States at the prestigious Harvard Business School in Boston.
Rosenlew brought a culture of systematic strategic planning to the company. In the 1970s, the automation industry and the robot industry were born from his idea. Rosenlew became the company's CEO and chairman of the board in 1977. A year later, together with Seppo Collander, he founded the pioneering Mancon development company.
of the 1980s in the beginning, Rosenlew was at the peak of his career. In February 1983, he posed on the cover of Talouselämä magazine with the headline: “Gustav Rosenlew does what he wants.”
In January 1987, everything changed when Gustav's relatives had sold their Rosenlew shares and at the same time the majority of shares to Rauma-Repola, without the CEO's knowledge. It was difficult for Gustav to understand what had happened. The wounds never fully healed. Mancon also soon ran into difficulties and went bankrupt in 1989.
As a company director, Rosenlew was a visionary looking for new things. He was a liberal thinker fascinated by technology, who assumed that gentlemanliness also applies to business life. His career as an industrial leader would have deserved a nicer decision.
Gustav had two hobbies in particular: hunting and aviation. He started aviation at a young age and progressed through gliding to small planes. As a skilled and enthusiastic photographer, he left behind a precious photo archive documenting family life.
Gustav valued the industrial tradition and followed the development of the former Rosenlew plants with interest. He supported the establishment of the Rosenlew Museum opened in Pori in 2006, as well as many historical projects. Until the very last few years, he closely followed the way the world was going and the new trends in economics and technology.
Family was an important support for Gustav. He was married in 1953 to Ulla von Willebrand, and they had three daughters and a son. Gustav was widowed in 1999. He remarried Päivi Hirskanka, but was widowed a second time in 2008.
Gustav had ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He was a supportive father to his offspring until the last.
Jussi Koivuniemi
Anne Rosenlew
Erik Rosenlew
The authors are the author of the history of the Rosenlew company and the biography of Sven-Erik Rosenlew, and the children of Gustav Rosenlew.
#Obituary #Gustav #Rosenlew
