Beyond the family boardroom - FT.com Generation game: Cristina Stenbeck has overcome the accusations of inexperience she faced when she took over from her father Jan Stenbeck When Cristina Stenbeck chairs meetings of Investment AB Kinnevik's board she wields a gavel that dates from the early days of the 75-year-old Swedish holding company. She is watched over by three portraits, including one of her father, Jan, with one of his basset hounds. History, family and family history are three threads that run through the 34-year-old's stewardship of a global business with investments ranging from packaging to telecoms to microfinance. "There is a real respect and regard for our heritage," she says, sitting in her offices off London's Piccadilly. But while Ms Stenbeck led last year's 75th anniversary celebrations and oversaw production of a short film about the group, she insists that, far from looking back over her shoulder, she is moving the group forwards in her own way, with her own style. It was Jan Stenbeck's sudden death, aged 59, nearly 10 years ago that thrust his then 24-year-old daughter into the role of de facto steward of the family's interests and eventual successor as chairman of the group. Her father, himself the son of the founder, had prepared her for the job. Informal chats about the importance of their business legacy started when she was six, at the family home on Long Island, New York. "I joined the board at 19, and I think I always expressed interest in the businesses, and certainly in his role in building them," she says, in the measured tone of a Swede and the accent of an American. But the fact she had to take up the reins so soon came as a shock - to her, and to investors in the separately listed, Kinnevik-controlled companies Mr Stenbeck had formed and chaired. There were lots of people who had great expectations. They'd signed up for a 59-year-old serial entrepreneur who had been breaking monopolies and building over 200 business since the "80s, and they got 24-year-old me. So, of course, there was a disconnect in terms of what certain individuals wanted to do and where they wanted to take their businesses," she says. Disconnect understates it. The shares of the companies did not collapse, but there was speculation about the stability of the web of interests and cross-holdings Mr Stenbeck had assembled, and fears of infighting among his favourites. Ms Stenbeck initially had no formal role other than one directorship. The Swedish press dubbed her "Queen Cristina" but held her lack of experience - two years working at Polo Ralph Lauren in New York - against her. But Hans-Holger Albrecht, who has worked for group companies under both Stenbecks since 1997 and now runs Modern Times Group, a Kinnevik-controlled broadcaster, says she knew "what was good for the owner and major shareholder: that was quite impressive from the first moment." Ms Stenbeck says "the importance of active ownership" is one clear message, learnt from her father, that she will pass on to her children. The lesson is to step forward and take responsibility for our significant ownership. That's all. Not to put it in the hands of lawyers and others. Another lesson is to "surround yourself with smart people, who are willing to give you time and to give the businesses their expertise." Mia Brunell Livfors, Kinnevik's chief executive, runs the group day-to-day, but Ms Stenbeck - who speaks for 35.1 per cent of the votes and 9.1 per cent of the capital through a private Luxembourg vehicle - describes herself as "very hands-on." Having stepped up to chair the holding company in 2007, she exercises her influence through the portfolio companies" boards and nomination committees, on which the largest investors in Swedish companies sit. Some families delegate that duty, but not the Stenbecks: "I do it myself because I think it's a great way to recruit outside people . . . who understand what it is we're looking for, the importance of cultural fit, competence, that kind of thing." With a fortune estimated by The Sunday Times at £350m and a comfortable life in the UK with her British husband and family, could she not just sit back, like many third-generation heirs? She responds politely, but firmly: "I could. I could maybe just be a board director. I could sit on the [boards of] family businesses. But I don't. There's lots to do. Kinnevik-controlled companies are pressing forward in emerging markets - both digital and geographic. The group holds a stake in Groupon, the online discount company, directly and through quarter-owned Rocket Internet, which is incubating other online companies. Meanwhile, she says the group has a long-term vision for Millicom, the mobile phone company it controls, and microfinance and media units in high-growth regions such as Africa, Latin America and Russia. She uses her privileged position as "the owner" to open doors for group companies to discuss regulation with heads of state - she recently brokered a meeting with Colombia's president - or to pave the way for deals with oligarchs. She is plainly happy that the old accusation of inexperience no longer stands up: "That's shown itself to be less of an issue with age and the performances of the businesses." Kinnevik, like its chairman, is now a more mature, more international group than it was 10 years ago - with all the regulatory responsibilities that entails. Ms Stenbeck has made the once-opaque group structure more transparent, while keeping a low profile herself. She bridles at the suggestion she was treated as heir to the throne and indeed, her style - courteous and self-assured but unassuming - is far from regal. In the boardroom, too, she says she is "very open and straightforward . . . I have lots of conversations. Fellow directors agree. As for being compared with her father, she quite likes that, though recognises differences in their approaches. Mr Stenbeck founded all the businesses with the exception of Kinnevik and famously courted controversy, for instance by challenging the Swedish TV monopoly by broadcasting from the UK. There is the difference between [a] founder-entrepreneur, and the next generation . . . But in terms of my personal engagement, it's very much the same. It's knowing the people that run the businesses, it's knowing the entrepreneurs out in the markets and it's spending time looking at the risks but also the rewards. The strongest charge against Ms Stenbeck these days may be that she is not adventurous enough. Maintaining an average annual total return of 20 per cent for shareholders over the past 30 years is harder as the group gets bigger. Dividends continue to increase, but the shares have returned 5 per cent annually over the past five years and Kinnevik suffers the curse of all holding companies: the stock trades at a wide discount to the value of its underlying investments. She agrees she must communicate more to investors how Kinnevik is taking cash from telecoms and investing it in e-commerce, just as Mr Stenbeck once took cash from the forestry, pulp and paper business to seed longer-term bets on telecoms. To some degree, she too is leading the group into the unknown. Does she sometimes feel a need to ask her father's permission? Ms Stenbeck recalls how last year, she and fellow directors of Tele2, the Kinnevik-controlled telecoms group, met in the holding company's boardroom in Stockholm to discuss a potential €460m investment in Kazakhstan - arguably more ambitious than anything her father attempted. When the panelling was folded back for the slide presentation, she could see only one portrait: her father and his faithful hound. "I just caught his eye, and the dog's eye, [and thought] "Definitely, we're going to go."" Were they endorsing the decision? She laughs: "I didn't look long enough to figure that out."