Bengt Baron

Bengt Baron (born 6 March 1962)^[1] is a business leader and former backstroke swimmer from Sweden.

Bengt Baron

Bengt Baron at the Swedish Sports Awards inside the Stockholm Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden in January 2013
Personal information
Full name	Bengt Baron
Nickname	Barre
Nationality	Swedish
Born	(1962-03-06) 6 March 1962 (age 63) Finspång, Östergötland
Height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Weight	183 lb (83 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	backstroke, butterfly
College team	University of California
Coach	Nort Thornton Jr.
Medal record Men's swimming Representing  Sweden Olympic Games 1980 Moscow 100 m backstroke 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m freestyle World Championships (LC) 1982 Guayaquil 100 m butterfly 1982 Guayaquil 4×100 m freestyle European Championships (LC) 1981 Split 4×100 m medley 1985 Sofia 4×100 m freestyle

Baron won the 100 m backstroke at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and was a member of the bronze winning team from Sweden in the 4×100 m freestyle at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. An undergraduate student from the University of California, Baron was named into its Hall of Fame in 1999. In the years 1979–1985 he won a total number of 33 Swedish titles.

After his career as swimmer, Baron attended the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his MBA in 1988. Upon graduation, he joined McKinsey & Company in their Stockholm office, after which he joined numerous consumer companies, including Coca-Cola, AB Frionor (a Norwegian frozen seafood company), and Kodak. From 2001 to 2004, Baron was CEO and President of Absolut Vodka, CEO and president of its parent company V&S Group 2004–2008, then CEO for Leaf 2009–2012 and after Leaf's merger with Cloetta he was CEO of the new Cloetta from 2012. He announced in 2015 that he was going to leave Cloetta.^[2]

He was previously married to Agneta Mårtensson, the couple has two daughters. He now lives with another woman.

Personal bests

Long course (50 m)

Event	Time		Date	Meet	Location	Ref
100 m backstroke	56.53		21 Jul 1980	Olympic Games	Moscow, Soviet Union
200 m backstroke	2:04.40		18 Aug 1979	-	Landskrona, Sweden
100 m butterfly	54.47		11 Apr 1980	World Championships	Guayaquil, Ecuador

Legend: WR – World record; ER – European record; NR – Swedish record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; tt – time trial

Clubs

• Finspångs SK
• SK Korrugal
• Järfälla SS