Lars-Göran

Name: Lars-Göran Borg
Age: 59 (at the writing moment)
Job: Designer, the position name on the business card reads “Senior Design Engineer”
Residence: Bäckseda in Vetlanda, Sweden
Hobbies: They have changed somewhat during the years. I was very interested in sports before, but the interest has decreased. I used to play golf a lot and I have plans for taking it up again when the time allows. Otherwise, it is mainly the garden that occupies my free time. I grow for example fifteen different sorts of apples in my garden.
Favourite team: I grew up in Jönköping, so it is Jönköpings Södra IF in other words.
A film you recommend: The one that is often called the best in the world – Citizen Kane.
Favourite place to visit: I like the USA and Florida in particular. The Americans are open and friendly people.

Lars-Göran has worked at Sapa’s Technical Service department for 25 years and he is in fact the only one who has been with the department all the way since it was established. But his career at Sapa started even before that, as early as in 1971. Before Lars-Göran became a designer he had worked as a profile draughtsman and a seller. “Actually, the best thing with aluminium profiles is that you can avoid machining”, says Lars-Göran and laughs. According to Lars-Göran, the Sting chair from the Blå Station company is an excellent example of such a profile design.

During all the years, Lars-Göran has worked with a great variety of customers, products and trades. “When I started at Sapa, we produced lots of aluminium profiles for hair curlers. After that I have worked with JAS aircraft, music systems, furniture and home furnishings. The list could be long as you like!”

Lars-Göran has collected a large library of technical solutions over the years, which naturally makes it easier to develop new ones. He has a good memory and many stories to tell. One of the memorable product developments is the mobile stand system which was used, among other things, during the Winter Games opening ceremony in Lillehammer in 1994. The system was developed together with Clown Ruben, whose original idea was to design a lightweight, disassemblable stand system for a mobile circus. During the intensive development stage Ruben and a friend of his lived outside the factory premises in Vetlanda for a month. Today, the stand system is owned by the Sit Down company and is still used during Formula 1 Racing in Montreal, among other things. As for Clown Ruben, he has changed his profession and is now the chairman of the Surströmming Academy (“surströmming” is a fermented Baltic herring, a Swedish cuisine speciality).

Lars-Göran’s interesting stories about creative people and companies are something that he readily shares with other people. The point of the stories is always the same: “An idea can lead to anything. Sometimes even as far as to a stock exchange listed company.”