From 1985 Michael lived and studied in Seattle, USA, until he graduated from Seattle University in 1992. Michael holds a BA in International Business and in Finance.
During his years in the US Michael was involved in some real estate projects and made several studies of the Self Storage concept.
After returning to Brussels, Belgium, in 1992, Michael took the initiative to investigate the possibilities of transfering the successful Self Storage Business in USA into Europe. A subsidiary to Grana International was formed, European Self Storage SA, and Michael took the responsibility for the development of the Company.
– Michael initiated the contacts and relations with Shurgard Storage Centers Inc in Seattle and was involved in all negotiations until the partnership was formed in 1994.
In 1994 Shurgard became a public Company and after some time on NASDAQ the Company was moved to NYSE (ticket SHU).
Michael´s initial responsibility in the partnership was to manage the Developments in Belgium and in 1997 he moved to Sweden to start the business there up from scratch. Sweden was the first market outside Belgium that Shurgard started.. Michael was responsible for the Scandinavian market and the Managing Director both in Sweden and in Denmark. Michael has built almost 30 stores in the two markets since 1997 and today Shurgard is a well known brand in both Sweden and Denmark.
In end of 1993 Michael moved backto Belgium and has as a consultant been responsible for expansion into new markets for Shurgard.
Michael has been one of the founders of the Federation of Self Storage in Europe www.fedessa.org and is a board member.
In 2005 Michael left Shurgard and has focused to expand the business of Grana International. Michael moved during mid 2006 to Sweden.
Patrick holds a degree in Financial and Commercial Science from EHSAL, Brussels, Belgium and a master’s degree in Finance from Cooremans Business School, Brussels, Belgium and degrees in taxation and auditing. He is also an alumnus of the EPGC Program of the Stanford Business School, USA.
Patrick has been on the board of Grana International SA since 1989 and was previously a tax and law consultant with Loyens & Volmaars in Brussels and assisted the Fogelberg family in the set up of Grana International in 1987. After some years Patrick joined Grana International and was in charge of the consulting and the asset management activities of Grana International and served later on as Managing Director.
Patrick Metdepenninghen was together with Michael and Åke Fogelberg involved in the start up of Shurgard in Europe and has been with Shurgard since then. Patrick was appointed President for the initial period and remained an executive director until late 2003 in charge of the financial affairs, thereby raising 1.6 billion Euros in financing and refinancing.
Since 2004, Patrick has been active as a business angel, and is actively involved in the BAMS Angels Fund.
Åke holds a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from Chalmers Technical University, Gothenburg, Sweden, and a Business Administration degree, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Åke started his business career as a contractor building highways, tunnels and commercial properties in Sweden. In 1982 he founded his first real estate company that invested in real estate projects around Sweden. In a few years the Company owned buildings in several cities in Sweden.
In 1985 the Company, together with 5 public Swedish Companies acquired a private Corporation with office buildings, hotels and land in Seattle, the United States. The Fogelberg family then moved to Seattle to be part of the management and the development of the portfolio.
After few years the portfolio was sold and Åke with his family moved to Belgium and started Grana International in Brussels.
Since 1987 Åke has been working in Grana as Managing Director and later on as Chairman.
All Swedish holdings and most of the remaining holdings in USA were sold in 1988.
Åke has been an active Board member of Shurgard Europe for more than 10 years.
Rickard Asp holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree (“Civilingenjör”) from KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), in Sweden. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree (“Civilekonom”) from University of Stockholm in Sweden.
Rickard joined McKinsey & Co’s Stockholm office after graduation in 1993. There he worked as a management consultant for 7 years in areas such as Merger & Acquisitions, Corporate Strategy, Organization and Cost Rationalization. He has international experience from working longer periods (>3 months) in Italy, the United Kingdom, The United States, Spain, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. His practise focus was Telecom and IT. During his time in McKinsey he was project manager for, e.g., three cross border M&A:s between Telecom Operators, one global reorganization of a 100 000+ employee company and start-up of a new Business Area for a Telecom Operator (5 billion SEK investment). When Rickard left McKinsey & Co in 2000 he was responsible for McKinsey’s Scandinavian Telecom Operator practice and part of the Stockholm Office Leadership Group as well as the European Telecom Leadership Group.
Rickard has since worked with Business Development as an independent management consultant for small and medium sized companies, CEO for a software start-up, Chairman of the board for several IT companies as well as associated director for AT Kearney. During this time Rickard has worked extensively with Business Planning, Merger & Acquisitions and Internationalization.
Today Rickard is the owner of Nortech, a successful telecom & IT Company in Sweden: See: www.nortech.se