Her Swedish Billionaire's Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance For Adults (5 page)

The original
operations, today in the form of Nordstorm Metall, have continued to
grow and today they constitute one of the Nordic countries' largest
recycling companies; Nordstorm Fastigheter is one of Sweden's largest
private property companies; Nordstorm Bulk together with Concordia
Maritime account for Sweden's largest tanker shipping business;
Nordstorm Drilling is Sweden's sole Swedish controlled business
carrying out off-shore drilling for oil. Many other enterprises
within the Nordstorm Sphere, thanks to Jan Fredriksen's fundamental
values, have remained successful and profitable.

So today, the
Nordstorm Sphere is one of Sweden's largest family owned groups of
companies with more than 20,000 employees and a turnover of around
SEK 60 billion.

As a businessman,
Jan Fredriksen was innovative and known for taking decisions relying
on his intuition combined with thorough and rapidly completed
practical analysis. He was not afraid to go his own way and he had
the courage to make difficult decisions. One of his mottos was: Don't
let setbacks get you down, get back on track. Fly low and far.

Nor did Jan
Fredriksen forget where he came from and he kept his ideals from his
upbringing on Donsö throughout his life. His leadership style
was characterized by a practical philosophy: You are never better
than the information you have gathered. Which is why he could often
be seen on the quayside talking to both customers and employees.

For Jan
Fredriksen, family and work was always center stage and he had an
engaging approach to his success and fame. For Jan Fredriksen, doing
profitable business was both his work and his interest and sharing
his successes through donations to charity and foundations was very
close to his heart.

In connection with
Jan Fredriksen's 40th birthday in 1994, the Jan Fredriksen Foundation
for Research and Culture was founded. Through the foundation, the
Fredriksen family provided support to research and cultural
activities, mainly in Gothenburg and western Sweden. Over the years,
donations have been made to Chalmers, the Gothenburg School of
Business, Economics and Law, the Art Museum, Göteborg Opera and
Universeum.

A man with
creative force has left us, but his lifework lives on. Or as Jan
Fredriksen would have said: As long as we live every day in the
present and for the future, our journey will never end.

Zuo-feng Zhang

Associate Dean,
Research

Samara sighed. Her
research subject was shipping and she’d taken up Jan Fredriksen
as her research subject. She was sorry to hear he had died. She felt
like she knew him personally because of all the research she’d
done on him and his family. She knew that Bjorn Fredriksen was poised
to take over his father’s business. He had a law degree from
Oxford University and an MBA from Yale. He was thirty years old, the
middle child, and the most well known of the siblings. He also had a
reputation as something of a playboy.

Samara couldn’t
wait to see what he did with the family holdings. Sell them piece by
piece or consolidate assets and hunker down? Their stock prices were
likely to take a hit from the death of Jan so it would be interesting
to see what Bjorn did with that.

It would probably
also take her research paper to another level so that was an added
plus. Samara grinned to herself, sending Amy a text to give her the
news. Their friendship had flourished over the six years they’d
known each other and Samara had found a new family in Amy’s.
Not that she didn’t still miss her own; especially her
sister…but she was coming to terms. Her phone pinged a message
notification and she clicked on it to read.

Is that a good
thing or bad?

Amy asked and Samara
shrugged and replied.

Both? I guess.

Samara walked slowly
to the school cafeteria where she worked part time as a cashier. It
was a good gig because she could research on her iPad while she rung
in the orders. Her boss didn’t mind as long as she didn’t
screw up the accounts.

It was a hot summer
day; the campus was mostly empty except for the summer school crowd.
She was dressed in short jean shorts that showcased her long legs to
best advantage. Being a five foot eleven black girl had its
disadvantages sometimes, especially when she was trying not to be
noticed; but she didn’t mind the admiring glances she was
getting right now.

She tossed her short
hair out of her face; with her pixie cut, it tended to get into her
eyes now and then but it was also really comfortable in the heat and
complimentary to her heart shaped face. She wore no jewelry or make
up, her sleeveless arms were bare. Her fitted red t-shirt had ‘Good
Morning. I see the Assassins have Failed’ emblazoned across it.
It gave people an excuse to stare at her substantial bust; a fact
which Samara was ruefully just realizing. She shrugged internally as
she entered the cafeteria.

*****

Samara was doing
further research on the inner workings of Nordstrom when she came
across an article stating that Bjorn Fredriksen would be in
California taking a break in the aftermath of his father’s
funeral.

She gasped in
excitement and was on her feet heading towards her professor’s
office before she’d even really thought about it. Luckily
professor Zhang had an open door policy and she didn’t so much
as flinch when Samara burst in.

“
Professor!
Bjorn Fredriksen is in town! Like right now. What are the chances he
might be willing to come to the campus and give a talk?”

“
Whoa,
hey, slow down there Sam. What are we talking about again?”

“
Bjorn
Fredriksen…Jan Fredriksen’s son? The shipping magnate
who just past away. And my research project by the way…”

“
Uh
huh?”

“
What
if we could get him to come do a guest lecture on Nordstorm? Isn’t
that something we would be interested in doing?”

“
Well..yes.
Assuming he would agree to do so-“

“
Well
we could contact him and see,” Samara was practically jumping
up and down with excitement.

“
We
could, but you’d need to calm down first.”

Samara stayed
absolutely still, “I’m calm. Promise.”

Prof Zhang gave her a
look before she picked up her phone and made a call. One call led to
another and another with one person referring them to someone else.
Finally they were connected with Bjorn’s assistant in Sweden
who was reluctant to commit him to anything considering he was doing
a bit of R&R. On further negotiations however, it turned out that
there were some Swedish artifacts the Archaeological department was
holding that were of interest to the Nordstorm group. Bjorn might see
his way to giving an in-depth lecture if negotiations could be opened
on that front. Professor Zhang spoke to one of her colleagues based
there and the deal was done.

“
So
he’s coming? He’s really coming?” Samara asked with
excitement.

“
He’s
really coming,” Prof Zhang confirmed.

“
Holy…I
need to prepare. Excuse me,” Samara said rushing out and
heading to the library. She had to get up to snuff on everything
Bjorn Fredriksen.

*****

Alison walked into
the hotel room from her coffee run to find her father sitting on her
bed, waiting for her. She stopped in surprise.

“
Dad!”
she exclaimed.

“
Yeah.
It's me. Your dad. Who you abandoned in Denver without a word?”
Chris Khaled stood up from the bed, stretching to his full six foot
four height and making Alison crane her neck to look up at him. She
was the midget of the family at a perfectly normal five foot six.

“
I..had
to,” Alison said trying to hide the quaver in her voice.

“
You…had
to? Really? Why did you have to?”

“
I
couldn’t do it anymore Dad. Samara was ri-“

“
Don’t
you! Don’t you even mention that girl’s name in my
present; she’s a coward and a traitor.”

“
Don’t
you call my little sister names old man! Coward? She’s the only
one of us with any bravery.”

“
Ha!
You always were a stupid little follower Alison. Well guess what;
Samara left us
both
okay?
So get off your high horse sister. I need you on a job.”

“
I’m
not coming Dad, okay?”

“
Oh
yeah? And what you gonna do when you run out of money girl? Because
trust me I ain’t maintaining your little ass for free.”

“
I
didn’t ask you to. I have a plan.”

“
Oh
yeah? And what plan is that?”

“
Like
I’d tell you,” Alison said turning aside to put her
coffee down, not incidentally covering the brochure she had been
reading earlier on different bartending recipes. There was a
roadhouse down the street that wasn’t too particular about
papers and credentials. It wasn’t exactly the high life; but it
was a genuine start.

Her father smiled
sardonically, “Well then, I’ll leave you to your…plan.
Just don’t come running to me when it fails.”

He brushed past her,
jostling her hard enough to make her stumble but she didn’t say
a word.

Samara stopped by the
message board to see if the notification was up. She lifted her eyes
and smiled with delight as she read.

The Day to Day
Challenges of Swedish Shipping

Free lecture

Saturday 19 May
14.00
De Neve Auditorium
UCLA

In his talk
Business Mogul Bjorn Fredriksen traces the rise of Swedish shipping
and the overarching challenge to be able to meet the various needs
and expectations of its Member Organizations in a timely and
expedient manner. The Member Organizations’ needs and
expectations can vary considerably and the challenge lies in finding
common solutions that are acceptable both to Member Organizations
that want to accelerate the work of the Organization, and to those
who are in need of technical assistance. If the Organization does not
manage to find acceptable global solutions, there is a risk that
various regional or national solutions are developed, which may have
a negative impact on international trade and the creation of a level
playing field for the maritime community. In addition, it may create
difficulties for effective implementation and enforcement in some
regions. Furthermore, there is a strong need for the organization to
have the ability to adequately respond to issues such as threats to
the environment. Inability to address important issues will undermine
the important function and role of the IMO as the prime regulator for
global shipping in the long run. In addition, such a development
would reduce the effectiveness and create uncertainty for the whole
shipping industry.

Bjorn Fredriksen
is CEO of the Nordstorm Group, based in Stockholm

She skipped away,
excited for tomorrow.

*****

Bjorn Fredriksen was
a surprise. Somehow, Samara hadn’t expected him to be so…she
shivered, unable to find just the right word. The color of his eyes
fascinated her right away. She’d seen pictures of him before,
but the reality was much more…hypnotizing. They weren’t
blue exactly, closer to violet. They were also covered by the longest
lashes Samara had ever seen, dark in color, almost black looking. But
they couldn’t be…they were probably just a darker auburn
than his hair; which shone with gold highlights and looked so soft
Samara just wanted to run her fingers through it. He had long shapely
fingers and he was tall. His Viking ancestors were definitely
showing; he might have been even taller than her dad who was really
one of the tallest people she’d seen in real life. In spite of
his height, he walked with panther like grace and purpose and Samara
found that her heart was beating faster just watching him.

He reached the podium
and smiled down at them. For a moment, Samara thought their eyes met.
She leaned forward, iPad at the ready, waiting to record everything
Bjorn said and did.

“
Good
morning MBA class,” he began and smiled.

“
F.M.L,”
Samara murmured on seeing that smile.

“
My
name is Bjorn Fredriksen and I am happy to be here to speak with you
about our industry. I will start with a small tale and then we’ll
do some Q&A around the topic of shipping. Would that be
acceptable to you?”

The class murmured
its ascent and Bjorn clicked his indicator to show a picture of a
ship on the projector.

“
On
September 12
^th
1745, the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg headed for her home
port after almost two years sailing on the world’s oceans. The
ship suffered heavily from storms, and the crew were exhausted but
full of expectation. But alas, the triumphant homecoming would end in
catastrophe.

With a pilot on
board, and before the very eyes of encouraging Gothenburgers in small
boats and on the beaches, the vessel ran aground in the middle of the
entrance to Göteborg harbour – and sunk with her entire
cargo. Thanks to all the nearby boats, all the crew survived.
Repeated attempts with varying success were made to salvage the
valuable cargo, which was worth as much as the national budget.
Speculation was fervent. An insurance fraud? Rudder problems? A
drunken captain? What do you all think?”

Samara raised her
hand and Bjorn smiled at her. He didn’t acknowledge her though
but just continued to speak.