“I came to E8 for the focus on cleantech. Those are the kinds of solutions that I care about and want to see succeed. Although that felt like a lonely pursuit for many years, it’s been all the more rewarding to see the huge interest in the cleantech space of late. I guess we were just a little bit ahead of the rest of the market. I remain convinced that this is an enormous opportunity and that it’s possible to do really well by doing good.”

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Lars is one of E8’s earliest members and one of the group’s more active investors. He served as E8 co-chair for over 6 years before focusing his attention on the venture funds associated with E8.

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Along with Sue Preston and Jeff Canin, he launched and manages the Element 8 Fund. Launched in 2015 this was the first venture fund spun out of E8. He is also a co-founder and general partner of E8 Ventures, the second fund associated with the group. E8 Ventures is targeting a first closing in the first half of 2022.

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His background is in IT where Lars was an executive at Microsoft for a combined 16 years, the first 5 in his native country of Sweden, before relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 1993 to lead the development of the company’s initial volume licensing programs. Most recently he was responsible for Microsoft’s Worldwide System Builder business.

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Lars lives in Kirkland with his wife. Although technically empty nesters since 2020, they’ve had the pleasure of having both their son and daughter back home on and off during the pandemic. Lars is an avid skier, loves to hike, travel, and to enjoy good food and drink with friends. He has a business degree from the University of Uppsala and a “gymnasie-engineer” degree, both in Sweden.