Assar Gabrielsson

Assar Thorvald Nathanael Gabrielsson (13 August 1891 – 28 May 1962) was a Swedish industrialist and co-founder of Volvo. Early life Gabrielsson was born on 13 August 1891 in Korsberga, Skaraborg County, Sweden, the son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson, who married on 14 April 1889. The father was a manager at Korsberga brickworks and later became a leaseholder of Spännefalla farm near the dairy in Tibro, where he started an egg shop. Assar Gabrielsson was the first child of three. He had a brother five years younger, Börje Gabrielsson, who in parallel with Assar was the managing director of Astra for thirty years. He passed studentexamen in 1909 and graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in 1911. Career Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor's degree in economics and worked as a sales manager with bearing manufacturer SKF in Gothenburg in the early 1900s. He was employed in 1916 by Björn Prytz at the sales department and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group on 20 June 1922. He held that position until the new automobile company AB Volvo was founded as a subsidiary company within the SKF company group. Volvo, the automobile project In June 1924, when Assar Gabrielsson met his old friend Gustaf Larson in Stockholm, he unveiled his plans to establish the manufacturing of a new Swedish automobile. Gustaf Larson had worked for SKF between 1917 and 1919 but now worked for the company AB Galco in Stockholm. They made an agreement in August 1924 at the Sturehof restaurant in Stockholm, signed in a written contract more than one year later, on 16 December 1925. In this contract Gustav was supposed to carry out the engineering work for a new car as well as an investment plan for a new manufacturing plant, with the stipulation that he would only be rewarded for his work in the event that; the project succeeds, at least 100 cars were produced in this new plant, and that this was to be achieved before 1 January 1928. This famous contract shows that Assar Gabrielsson "owned" the project and that it was a high-risk project without any guarantees. Assar took the economic risks himself and Gustav, in the worst case, would have worked on the project without being rewarded, but would still have his salary from AB Galco in Stockholm.