Ingrid af Sandeberg

Describe your role and what it is that you do overall and on a day-to-day basis.

I run my own consulting company since March 2022, and I’m the Chairman of Stockholm AI. I have a background as a management consultant (c. 5.5 years) and have held COO positions or similar at three early stage tech startups, and now I’m picking the best of both worlds: I work with super cool start-ups and big corporations as a consultant and I support non-profits, interest groups and governmental initiatives as a subject matter expert related to AI and digitalisation. As an entrepreneur, I can choose who I want to work with, as well as how and when I want to work, more freely than as an employed consultant.

Overall, all of “my hats” imply some level of structuring and problem-solving, as well as 'getting shit done' (my only computer sticker), but how this looks on a day-to-day basis varies a lot – which is what I love about my roles! One day, I am discussing radical business model innovation with an OMX20 CxO, the other I’m re-designing organisational processes to enable data security certification for a deep tech start-up or writing content for another, the next I’m in Dubai discussing digital business models in smart mobility, and one odd Thursday I skip on a spontaneous trip to Eastern Europe because I don’t have any meetings and new experiences give me creative inspiration.

Naturally, being in and around one of my preferred office locations (at home, at a café or at a client) in Stockholm is the single most commonly occurring of the above situations, but I really enjoy a lot of variety.

What interested you about the field you are currently in? 

My field is on the one hand quite indistinct, as I work with a variety of companies, industries, and issues - and the variety in and of itself is very appealing to me. On the other hand, I generally work in tech-intensive settings, with strategic and operational matters; or I facilitate communication between business and tech people (in writing, verbally, workshops, etc.) which I thoroughly enjoy. There is generally a huge and unhealthy gap between technical and business competence, which I can somewhat aspire to fill (and I’m also a math geek at heart).

The decision to start my own company was a fairly long time coming, but also quite spontaneous: I had thought about it for a while, as I like working with different companies, people, and issues; and got an offer to take on an interim-COO role when I was just finishing up a computer science course at Harvard a few months back. At some point, I might want to be part of building something more scalable, but at present, I’m just having a really good time doing this.

Why did you choose to study your subject area at SSE? 

My Masters was in Accounting, Valuation & Financial Management, and I chose it because I wanted to work with companies and numbers, and I was (still am) more interested in the left-hand side of the balance sheet than the right-hand side… Jokes aside, it helped me develop very concrete and applicable knowledge as well as understanding business/finance-related numbers and how to impact them. I’ve had a lot of use of the tools I was given during my years at SSE!

How did your time/education at SSE help guide you to the career journey you have embarked on? 

While inarguably a solid academic education, I strongly believe that the core strength of SSE is its strong ties to the business society – both through the school and the Student Association. I felt it during my time there, and I’ve had it confirmed since: looking at job applications and interviewing, students from SSE generally have a more professional approach and more solid CVs as compared to most other academic institutions from where I’ve met students. 

What path did you take from graduation to where you are now? 

Three years with consulting house Arthur D. Little, one year at computer vision start-up Univrses, 2.5 years with ADL, a couple of months with data validation start-up Validio, a computer science course at Harvard - and then the interim COO role that was my first consulting gig.

Following your time studying and living in Stockholm, do you have any words of wisdom or advice you would like to share with our current students?

There is no point in becoming good at something you don’t like doing, so use SSE as a platform to meet people, ask questions, and find out what you like! Don’t be afraid to approach people – if you balance self-assuredness with humility and know your knowns and unknowns, you will come across as very credible.