The Team
Gerda Mazi Larsson, CEO
A strong voice for gender equality, innovation enthusiast, and entrepreneur. She started her first organization in her early 20s and later co-founded The Case for Her, a femtech and women's health investment portfolio. Formerly she was CEO at The Case for Her, Deputy Executive Director at UN Women Sweden, CEO at the evaluation organization Charity Rating, and CSO at the real estate company Mitt Alby. She has experience working and investing globally and is driven by her passion for seeing great ideas reach scale.
Gerda sits on the board of Primär FM Group, Lanetalk, Droppa, Släktingar, The Case for Her, chairs Mitt Alby Foundation, and serves as a juror for the feminist film prize, The Anna Award. Former board positions include chair at 1325 Policy Group, board member of the East African e-commerce company Kasha, and Giving Wings. She has a B.A. in Urban and Regional Planning and an M.Sc. in Politics and Development from Stockholm University.
In 2022 Gerda was recognized as the #24 on The Future Female Leaders in Sweden by Ledarna. In 2021 she was named the #1 top talent in Sweden in the Social Impact and Sustainability category by the Nova 111 List. In 2020 she was awarded the 101 Global Fabulous CSR Leaders by World CSR Congress and came second when Sifted listed the Pioneers of the New World - category Big Ideas. In 2019, she was also one of the awardees of the Power Together award given by Women Political Leaders for her work in women's health.
Mikael Ahlström, Chairman
Entrepreneurial investor. He emigrated to the United States of America in 1980 after spending a compulsory year of Military Service and studying Law, Economics, Business Administration, East Asia Science and Film, Drama & Theatre at the University of Lund, Sweden.
In New York, Mikael worked with coal mining and coal trading but followed the emerging development of Private Equity closely. In 1985 Mikael returned to Europe and completed an MBA at INSEAD, France. In 1986 he founded Northern Europe’s first Private Equity Group, Procuritas, where he still is a partner but without any executive responsibilities.
In parallel with building Procuritas, Mikael invested in areas outside of Procuritas scope, primarily in various Start-Ups and industrial enterprises outside the Nordic region. He also has founded several organizations in the philanthropic sector. His interest in film is still intact. Mikael has also been involved as an investor and/or as an Executive Producer in about 20 Swedish Feature Films, several of which have won the Swedish Guldbagge Award, Sundance Film Festival in Utah, and one film was nominated for the Best Foreign Movie category at the Academy Awards in California.
Presently Mikael is active on several Corporate Boards. Most notably, he is Chairman of Byggmästare Anders J Ahlström and of The Perimeter Protection Group. Previous board assignments include Swedish Match, Gunnebo, Bravida and Lekolar.
Upon INSEADs 50th Year anniversary Mikael was named by INSEAD as one of 50 Alumni who have changed the world. Mikael has also been inducted into The Swedish Private Equity Hall of Fame.
Gabriella Krook Eriksson, CFO
A finance and economy expert with a passion for developing and improving companies. Gabriella has always known that numbers are her forte. At the age of 18 she had created her first company, a two women business delivering and manufacturing curtains to her local community in Dalarna. But Gabriella’s dreams were bigger than that. In her early twenties, she left Dalarna to study Accounting and later Strategic Leadership and Business development at, Partners Garden.
In 2005 she founded her first bookkeeping and accounting company, which was later acquired by a larger firm, so she knows what it takes to be a start-up founder in a competitive space. Since then she has held several leading positions and most recently, she was Head of Accounting at Söderberg & Partners. Her long experience in the financial sector makes her an excellent board member and a wizard on financial due diligence.
As the CFO at Curitas Ventures, she supports the entrepreneurs to grow stronger by advising on financial governance as well as overseeing financial statements and reports. She presently sits on the boards of the investment fund Nordic Asia Group, the leading workwear chain Team Work Wear and Autus AB.