“Activism” might be one of the less helpful terms in modern investing, a label that conjures everything from boardroom bust-ups, to terse exchanges between disgruntled shareholders and incumbent managements.
However, in this conversation, Lars explains the early insights gained from collaborations with the great Carl Icahn, to building Cevian, and creating a long-term, extremely successful fund, investing in a small number of listed European and UK companies to help bring about significant, value-creating change.
He explains the voyage from identification to ownership; from constructive engagement to taking a place on the board; to working to bring about change and improving the business’ execution to driving improved shareholder returns through operational improvements.
He contrasts their approach to that of private equity, discusses investing as they did to bring about change at ABB, to pondering on the question of “why more people don’t do this?”
The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by J.P. Morgan Asset Management*, IFM Investors, World Gold Council and LSEG.
*During the episode we cite J.P. Morgan Asset Management as Europe’s leading active ETF provider by assets under management. This is sourced from J.P. Morgan Asset management and Bloomberg, data as of 30 March 2026.
