Robert Ekblom, Jr.

Early Life

I was born in New York in October 1992. Whilst my family is originally from Finland, my parents happened to be living in the United States during the mid-to-late 80’s and early 90’s. In 1994, 6 weeks after the birth of my sister, the family relocated from New York to London, where I spent most of my childhood. The family lived across many areas in London, including Barnes and Chelsea. I attended Ibstock Place School by Richmond Park. In 2004, we moved to Helsinki, Finland. This meant stepping out of an English-speaking academic curriculum into a Finnish/Swedish-speaking one, at Cygnaeus Lågstadieskola in Punavuori, Helsinki. My childhood was very exciting and some of the people from this chapter in my life are still dear friends today.

In 2005, we made my final childhood move from Finland to Geneva, Switzerland. I attended the International School of Geneva, La Grande Boissiere, from my final year of Middle School (8th Grade) all the way through High School to 13th Grade, where I completed the International Baccalaureate and the SAT’s. This was again a change in academic language and curriculum, where the school was bilingual and studies were completed in both English and French. Throughout High School, I was particularly active in Global Issues, the school debate team (with which I travelled across Europe to Dusseldorf, Luxembourg, Paris and as far as Costa Rica participating in student global issues debate networks and political forums), Model United Nations, and music. I was the lead guitarist in a handful of music projects and bands, performed at a number of venues throughout high school, and played a critical role in the conceptualization and execution of the school music festival (The LGB Music Fest), which during my study period saw many student bands perform for friends and family. During High School, I was accepted and participated in two summer programs at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, where my first summer I took political science modules and the second summer I focused on creative writing and literature. I am today listed as a Notable Alumni to The International School of Geneva. Towards the end of my High School, I was accepted to Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, where I would begin my bachelors studies; however, not before I completed my gap year.
Compulsory Military Service
Following High School, I moved to Finland for my gap year and joined the Finnish military. I served my time in the Finnish NAVY, where I completed my bootcamp in the Marines at the Upinniemi Naval Base and then transitioned to the ”Hamina-Class” Fast Attack Craft (FAC) Missile Ship, ”Pori”. My rank in the Finnish military reserves is ”Matruusi”, or ”Sailor” in English.
Education

In 2012, I moved to the United States where I began my studies at the Liberal Arts school Dickinson College. I focused my studies in the direction of political science. Alongside my studies, I joined ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps). Whilst there were many positives to the university experience in the United States, and I once again was able to spend considerable time in New York City, I was too European at heart and preferred to complete my studies in a familiar setting. In the beginning of 2013, I relocated from Pennsylvania to London where I continued my studies at the European Business School at Regents College. I changed my focus areas from Political Science-related courses to Finance and Business Management. Throughout my studies, I grasped at several branches of business by selecting modules which interested me greatly such as Advertising, Marketing, Branding and Public Relations. These modules were the cornerstone of my entering front-office and sales-related positions during my career. During the studies, each student was required to spend a full year studying abroad in the language of their choice. Given my chosen language was French, I spent my two semesters split between two countries: Canada and Switzerland; Quebec City being where I studied for 6 months and Geneva where I worked for 6 months. I graduated in 2016 with an Upper Second-Class Honours BA.

Career

During my studies, I held several internship positions. Asset Management was my clear direction and I even had the opportunity to work at organizations such as Numen Capital in the UK, CapMan in Finland and ARM Swiss Representatives in Switzerland during summer trainee programs. It was then immediately after completing my bachelors that ARM relocated me to New York where I began my formal career in business development. My mandate was to identify, engage and execute distribution agreements with North American Asset Managers interested in expanding their capital raising efforts to Switzerland.

Post financial crisis and when AIFMD came into effect in the EU, Switzerland had to adopt their own formal mechanism for vetting international fund managers attempting to enter the market. FINMA, the Financial Regulatory body of Switzerland, mandated a handful of private organizations to assist with this vetting and Swiss local representation; ARM being one of these private institutions. Three mentors that I still today appreciate for their role in my stepping into the industry are Anne Simond, Gregory Taylor and Arnold Bucheli.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management

In 2017, I had the unique privilege of joining Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM). Following numerous interviews in New York, I was ultimately hired and I joined the team as the most junior salesperson in the Nordic Sales unit out of London, led by Alexander Brunton and James Owen. Between the three of us, we were responsible for marketing and sales across Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and managing the relationship with our partners and affiliates responsible for Iceland. My colleagues focused more heavily than myself on the illiquid offerings, with a handful of exceptions, whilst I focused much of my attention on the liquid offerings and supporting on the illiquid strategies where I could. On account of my fluent Finnish and Swedish, naturally much of my time was dedicated to the Finnish and Swedish markets. The opportunity to work for Morgan Stanley at such an early stage in my career really set the foundation and trajectory for my career within asset management. I resigned from Morgan Stanley in March 2020 as an Associate, and relocated to Finland.

Grit Governance

Not long after I found myself living in Finland once more, I joined a local Family Office, GRIT Governance, as a Director. I was responsible for the continued growth and development of the organizations’ suite of financial services and capabilities, specifically focusing on expanding their mandates to international fund managers. This role was helpful in that it involved me more acutely in the local financial services scene. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Mathias Österberg, CEO of GRIT Governance.

Haven Green Investment Group

Whilst the foundations and designs for the new organization began earlier, I formally joined Haven Green Investment Management in July 2021, led by my former Global Head of Sales and Distribution at Morgan Stanley, Paul Price. This role saw me stepping back into my Morgan Stanley distribution roots, where I was responsible for Haven Green’s business development activities across the Nordics. I worked closely with and represented a global suite of impact and sustainability-focused investment managers and assisted said asset managers’ efforts in establishing more prominent footprints across the Nordic market. This was also a pivotal moment in my career with regards to sustainability and aligning myself far more substantially with responsible investment. Haven Green saw a number of old colleagues from Morgan Stanley join over the years and it was a pleasure to work once again with the people that largely introduced me to the industry from MSIM, and to once more be part of a team led by Paul Price.

Ernst & Young

In September, 2023, I was hired by Ernst & Young (EY) to lead Sustainable Finance within Financial Services Consulting (FSO) in Finland. This saw my departure from Haven Green Investment Management, fund distribution and capital raising and my entry into the major leagues of consulting under a Big Four umbrella. My primary mandate was to expand the EY Sustainability offering to a broader audience of financial services entities in the Finnish market. With that said, and particularly owing to my past professional experience, I also spent considerable time outside of Finland targeting institutions and organizations across mainland Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. Whilst EY’s primary client base is insurers and banks, I spent much of my time working alongside our Nordic leaders in the broadening of our financial services clients to include the Wealth and Asset Management sector of finance. It was an exciting year and a half, and a brand new chapter in my life both personally and professionally. I am thankful to my colleagues Petri Vuorinen, Hanna Asikainen-Gallardo and Sami Toivonen for their mentorship.

Today

I am an entrepreneur within Asset Management and Nordic Business Development. Based out of Switzerland, I act as a third party marketing and business development advisor to asset managers interested in better accessing the Nordic market. I leverage 12+ years of industry experience and look to forge relationships between my affiliates and the Nordic institutional market. I am committed to assisting asset managers with the right mission, integrity and purpose to access Nordic institutional capital.