spotlight AN ACCIDENTAL ORPHANAGE When Swedish businessman Leif Rahmqvist bought property in South Africa, he didn’t expect to become such a necessary benefactor By Josh Sims What is a Swedish office supplies businessman in his 70s doing trying to revamp around 30,000 hectares of land in South Africa? It has long been a question asked about Leif Rahmqvist, and it was one Rahmqvist often asked himself. “At heart, I’m an adventurer,” he says by way of an answer. “I’ve been lucky to travel around the world a lot, and it wasn’t long before I discovered that the African bush offers the biggest sense of freedom you can get.” Indeed, when, almost 20 years ago, he decided he would dial back his responsibilities at Rahmqvist – the workplace supplies company established by his parents in Sweden back in 1953, which he then built up to be one of Europe’s biggest names in that field, and which is now run by his two sons – it was an opportunity to, as he puts it, “concentrate on his own interests and be less in service to the company”. The transition involved a number of smaller business interests – including real estate and wine – but little did he expect, at first, that his next step would 10 NetJets
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