Esade Alumni has announced the winner of the 2024 Esade Award: Niklas Adalberth, founder of the Norrsken Foundation and co-founder, in 2005, of Klarna. Adalberth will receive the award during the Annual Esade Alumni Day at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya on 13th May, an event attended by former students of the Esade community.

Esade Alumni presents the award to this long-standing entrepreneur in recognition of his outstanding innovation in the financial sector, his robust business leadership and his commitment to social causes. It also acknowledges his current work as the founder of Norrsken – a foundation dedicated to supporting and promoting social and tech entrepreneurship with a view to addressing global challenges – which has recently created a hub in the city of Barcelona for launching projects with a positive impact on society in order to help entrepreneurs deal with the world’s major challenges.

The award will be presented during the 28th Annual Esade Alumni Day, entitled “From Creators to Innovators: Empowering Change”, a day dedicated to entrepreneurship where Niklas Adalberth will share his experience with Esade alumni. Also taking part will be George Chondrakis, a professor in the Esade Department of Strategy and General Management and director of the Esade Entrepreneurship Institute. There will also be a panel discussion about Esade’s DNA and entrepreneurship chaired by Daniel Sánchez, president of Esade Alumni, founder of Nauta Capital and president of Ship2B Ventures, accompanied by the Esade alumni José Manuel Villanueva, co-founder of Privalia, and co-founder and CEO of 011h; María Alegre, co-founder of ChatBoost and Flori Ventures, and Maite Barrera, founder of Bluecap and board member of Globant.

About the Esade Awards

The Esade Awards are organized by the Esade alumni community to acknowledge and honor people and organizations whose careers, activities or services are characterized by the values that define the founding spirit of Esade and who are a benchmark and example for others.

Previous years’ winners include Joaquín Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander; James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; Enrique Lores, president of Imaging & Printing Solutions at HP; Pablo Isla, CEO of Inditex; Mikael Ohlsson, CEO of Ikea; Carlos Slim, CEO of Inbursa; Indra K. Nooyi, president and CEO of PepsiCo; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, president and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., and Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank.