Curriculum Vitae of Mr. Lars Olof Kanngard, just click on this link.

1978 LOKAB  - IFF 1982 – Esselte Voice 1989 – TeleSveg 1983 – Telit Telitel 1995 – Trendit 1996 Dubai 1998 - Trade names by Lars Olof Kanngard

Professional Experience - Curriculum Vitae 

The background of

Lars Olof Känngård,
born in Stockholm on the eight day of October in the year of 1956

Rresident in Dubai - UAE between June 1998 - December 2009,
from 2010 resident in Bangkok Thailand.

A travel in time with Lars Olof Kanngard (by: Lars Olof Kanngard Dubai 2009)

I, Lars Olof Kanngard,  have in all my life, woken up each morning with new ideas, so I would say that I’m an innate innovator. I have never treated what others say is a problem, as anything other then a new challenge to be solved.

My formal education is "just" the basic school up to the 9^th grade, and from that age I have been working hard in the ”high-school of life”, with a number of mentors who have taught me a lot.

Let me also state that you may find some grammar or spelling errors, due to the fact that I’m dyslectic.

From a perspective of an innovator, I will describe what major innovations I have been involved in, during all these years.

My first innovation was made already at the age of 16, Safety LOK System. An electronic device which would alert a sensor if there has been a theft in a supermarket or could be traced if a somebody had robbed a bank.

In the mid-70s I was engaged to introduce the first hamburger restaurant franchise in Sweden, “CARROLS”, and took later part in transforming a Swedish manufacturer of kitchen equipment, “Rostfria Inredningar”, and to get the right equipment to work for the new trend. I was at that time based in the lovely Swedish town of Lund, where I worked to develop the new “Hamburgarstället”, which at that time was unique in the region and a Swedish version of a hamburger restaurant.

From being in the food sector, it was time to try something new. As so many other things in life, I came across another innovator - from Gothenburg - who had invented a liquid for cleaning oil-heating systems. At this time we had an energy crisis in Sweden and any effort to save energy was highly appreciated by the Government.

Inspired by the challenge, I quickly built up a nation-wide franchise concept, “Svenska PS Pannservice”, and started a new movement to save on energy cost for every household with its own oil-burner. After a successful start, I brought in some partners, which later turned out to be my own exit. Before that, however, the initiative was so highly appreciated and well known that the then Minister of Energy, Olof Johansson, held a meeting with us.

During the time 1977 to early 1978 I spent a wonderful time in the beautiful island Cran Canarias, where I had  the blessing to live as a family member of the great entertainer and magician Mel Calvert, and his wife Sunny.

In 1978 I started my own company in Sweden, LOKAB, as a consultants and innovation company. I had invented a security system for Video distribution, which could effectively track any piracy of copied videotapes. The concept had also one more innovator who brought in the technology knowledge needed, L.G. Ridderstrand, owner of FTV. 

LOKAB™ initiated also SamVideo™, VideoRent™ and BioCard™ as concepts to the market.

LOKAB also had a subsidiary LOKAB Inc, established in Los Angeles, with my partners Harry Novak and Sam Winnikof.

The security system was later on launched by Modulföretagen and adopted by Pressbyrån and Shell Service stations for their Videocassette distribution.

DataCard, Addressograph AAMSCO was also part of the development as well as OCR.

In 1982, I started a movement to help youngsters with social problems to get back into society and started the first private foundation with commercial activities, IFF The Institute for the Future.

The initiative became national news and I also got some inspiring words on our way from the then Prime Minister, Olof Palme, as well as from others who showed the interest from the Parliament.

IFF became the platform for a number of small companies and in early 1983 also started to develop computer based solutions. The first concept was that the team developed and successfully launched the first public E-mail system, CompuText™, in late 1983. The service was sponsored by Digital Equipment and was an open and free service up to 1992. IFF also created the first database and virtual contact network for innovators and assisted the Swedish Innovators’ Association with its services.

IFF worked close to a group of experts in the field of rehabilitating people from drugs and social problems, PAB AB. This operation started up two rehabilitation homes, and IFF became for some of the clients the way back to society. IFF created several projects; their commercial bases formed the potential future for the client. The principals, Professor Sten Rönnberg and Dr. Håkan Johnsson, who also came to be, and still are, my mentors, with whom I have now worked for nearly 20 years.

The board of directors of the foundation consisted of a unique group of individuals, such as Sir Dennis Finnigan, Engineer Sune Hilstad who is the General Manager for the Swedish Engineers’ Association as well as the Chairman for the Swedish Innovators’ Association, Bengt Söderström, a well respected and  experienced executive, who had been Managing Director of the Swedish crystal company Orrefors and Chairman of the Swedish Export School. As well as Greger Bonderud who is an innovator and a well known handicap athlete, to mention a few.

IFF founded a few commercial companies, such as Voicemail Svenska AB and Vociemail Scandinavia AB as well as Voicemail Scandinavia SA, and  successfully launched public Voicemail services in Sweden and Denmark. The trademark Voicemail was licensed to our organization.

In 1996 IFF and Voicemail Svenska AB arranged the first International VMA - Voice Mail Association meeting in Stockholm, Huddinge. I became one of the founding members and held a board position until 1992.

We where very inspired and where blessed to have supporters such as Torbjörn Fälldin, former Prime Minister of Sweden and also Torbjörn Larsson vice Director General of the Swedish Tele monopoly, Televerket.

At the same time, our R&D Department had started to develop our own MiniVoice™ System, and, totally against all odds, we decided to develop a professional Voice system based on a standard PC computer.  We initiated this project with a partner from San Francisco – Talking Technology, who had develop BigMounth™ and later on a two-line voice board (TTI).

The first challenge where soon to come:

Försäkringskassan – FK

The first truly public Voice-system solution in the world.

One challenge was given to us during 1998 from the Swedish Government and its department for the Social Insurances System ( Försäkringskassan – FK ) who in Stockholm had a huge need to cut down their cost of handling the incoming calls each day.

In Stockholm, at this time, if I not recall wrong, FK had 26 local offices and hundreds, nearly thousands of calls each day, their the public called in to a tape-recorder, left their social security number plus the cause why they could not go to work that day.

The Swedish system worked at that time in such way, that the Government, or rather FK would pay out to the individual the money they should have got from their employee.

The staff at each FK office, each day, then needed to listen to this messages and write the information up on a report. The report was later on manually typed in to the computer system

This process was costly and the Government had calculated that each call cost more than 25 Swedish Crowns per call.

We where lucky to have a strong supporter from their operation, Björn Lagerdahl, whom helped us a lot and by bridging and co-ordinate what we could do and their need, we successfully got the service up and running.

One of the hurdles to pass, was the fact that the Government and its subsidiary at such time, where not able to invest into any new technology, whereas I invented a “pay-per-transaction” model.

The result, the Government saved huge amount and we where always on top of the technology and made shore that it worked.

We also developed the first real-time stock-market digital voice service, based on the “huge” Voicemail system, which was based on PDP1184. We successfully also launched a service for LINJEFLYG, the domestic monopoly flight company (at that time), a service for stand-by information to students.

1989 the “basement” operation gets market acceptance.

Just after that FK had signed the contract with us, ESSELTE AB, made a strong move and bought the whole IFF group’s assets up, and we became ESSELTE VOICE AB.

When ESSELTE bought the assets from the foundation IFF, the legal entities was left behind and later on closed down. This becomes a bad idea, but I did not now that at such time.

At a later stage, and hence I was the Chairman for the foundation, I came to be personal responsibility for a tax case their the Tax authority transformed loan to individuals into salaries, whereby I was charged with a large tax-amount with 7 figures. I also paid the amount and no further claim where made.

As the General Manager / President for ESSELTE VOICE AB, a division within ESSELTE AB, we developed Voice services and systems. Made the strategic plans for AT&T and ESSELTE to build up Fulfilment Centers, but of strategic reasons ESSELTE and AT&T did never do what was planned.

ESSELTE VOICE AB become the largest Voice System assembler in Europe, between 1989 to 1992 and started also its own production unit Voiceq™

During that time we also started up the first Value-added service center for so called 900 calls (071) and we developed also an emergency system for one of the nuclear plants in Sweden who, I think is still up and running.

In 1991/1992 ESSELTE AB, the mother company to ESSELTE VOICE AB came into a large shareholder coupe, where ESSELTE was forced to sell out any company which was not in the main-stream of their business.

Our business unit was sold to a Dutch company Group – Nijholt Telecommunication, who later changed name to NTC.

I personally left this group less then a year later and decided to start up my own business in a sub area of Sweden.

My younger brother Ove Känngård (Kanngard) re-created the production of voice system under his own company VIATEL AB and the life and innovation of the MiniVoice system survived. www.Viatel.se or if you like to go directly to the English page; http://www.viatel.se/1/index.html The ViATel company came later to be re-capitalized after some 'hick-ups' where I stod by and injected a welcomed capital.

1993 TeleSveg AB is born.

I moved 550 kilometers north west of Stockholm, the Swedish Capital City, to the small town Sveg. I hade in my mind to start up a new private tele-operator with the objective to co-ordinate tele- and IT traffic from the sub-areas to the large cities and also make the large tourist and ski resorts to be well connected and meet the new age of communication, with the same strength as being in a city. At this time, Sweden was still under the monopoly of Televerket (now days Telia), but still the local management liked my initiative and was most helpful to make my concept to become a reality.

To land in a small town and be different and have big plans, is not at all an easy task. I created some jealousy, by being “to much” different, everything was on track and the start up phase was just in the progress, when suddenly the Governmental Authority for granting financial help to companies in sub-areas NUTEK made a full stop. With no explanations the wind was shifting 180 degree and I stood there completely alone, with no other alternative, than to close town the operation before I brought any further burdens on the company.

A few years later I finally got the answer, to what actually had happen. The cause to the “full stop” was that the local tax-authority had made a complaint and asked the prosecutor to investigate a potential tax-crime, based on a roomer. Later on, but only to late, the prosecutor closed the case and did not file nor bring a case. The accusation was mad, I must say, in bad faith.

TELiT and Telitel are born 1995.

Being a non-treatable optimist and also innovator, I couldn't’t accept this and was in one of my trips to US visiting an old friend, or may I say, one of my true fathers, Mr. Francesco Galesi.

Mr. Galesi liked a lot my concept and we brought my plans up on a European level rather than a local level and decided to create TELiT Galesi Telecommunication AB as 50/50 partners.

A new town for its creation was selected, Sollefteå, which is located 600 kilometer from the capital city of Stockholm.

The Swedish Government and its parliament decided to support the project as well as those we created a close collaboration with Ericsson, to supply an AXE system.

The town of Sollefteå has for many years being one of the larger strategic military bases in Sweden, but during 1993/94 the Government decided to close down one of two bases, located in the same town.

At my first arrival to Sollefteå, I meet the Municipality leaders, who normally in a small town such as Sollefteå, and strong base for the socialistic party, shouldn't’t be so friendly to private businesses. But what I meet and the spirit I found, was something I only had seen in US, so I was most inspired and convinced Mr. Francesco Galesi to pay a visit and see it by him self.

We agreed to build up the new operation and base its headquarter in this wonderful environment, which eventually would create quality and such quality would eventually also reflect the quality towards the customer.

 TELiT™ changed later the name to Telitel™, (www.telitel.se) the operation and preparations to start the operation was in full work during 1995 and the first customers come on-line early 1996. Telitel, become one of the new private operators in Sweden.

During the summer of 1996, the Swedish authority NUTEK gets involved in the establishment process, and what happens now is quite amazing, but true. The authority NUTEK demands that I could not be in a leading position or being a larger shareholder.

This took place in a crucial phase of the start up, whereby I decide and agree to step a side and I also agreed to go down in may ownership, to a level they could’t deny me to keep.

Just a month later, it comes to be known that NUTEK was wrong and the Governor sent an official prologue to Mr. Galesi.

You can read the letter, if you press here.

To late for me, I was already planning new things and I decided to do more for the wonderful town Sollefteå.

Trendit™ Research Sweden AB is born.

From the work to develop Telitel, I hade come across a business concept, there a new method was being used to make Gallup and public polling. This concept, in combination with new technology and access to a telecom operator was all I needed to create Trendit™ as a new consumer research company.

Trend – it or Trend in time, was the basis for choosing the name.

With as little preparation time as 3 month, I successfully launched Trendit as a new company in Sollefteå and come quickly to employee more than 50 people. 

Hence one of the key-factors to the operation was built upon how to train and educate the staff, the government approved Trendit to become the education-operation, and instead for that the Government through its subsidiary AMS was doing the education of unemployed people.

Accordantly with the European Commissions Gaol No 6 substitute program, any education to unemployed are to be granted 50% of its cost from the EC board and 50% paid by the local authority.

Having educated nearly 100 + people and having had the operation up and running during 1997, we ware keen to get the remaining founds from the EC board.

The local Government made a huge mistake and mixed together the rules and denied the operation its rightfully hard earned funds. After several month of hard legal struggles, the efforts was too much and I decided to give up the efforts to get it right, and I couldn't’t accept the most disturbing “special” conditions which was applied as new conditions.

I my self closed down the company and at the closing date, formally the company had a positive balance sheet, due to the claim on the government.

Trendit and my self filed an official case against the Government with a damage claim; the end of that story is to be seen.

The whole story of what had happen can be waived in Swedish, if you visit www.myndighetsmissbruk.com. Most likely, this portal also will be translated into English. In early 2002 this website was closed by a humble requests.

One time in the hands of the tax-authority and they do not find any thing, don’t worry, thy will continue to dig and turn up side town on stones for many years to come.

To file a case towards any part of the Swedish Government, who even has been found guilty to do things, which the law forbid them to do, is not an easy task. Normally such cases take no less then 10 years.

Who is the loser?

A trip to Dubai changes my life – 1998.

Disappointed of what had happen in Sweden, I was asked by my layer to help an other innovator to strengthen up his own operation. The innovator had for many years develop a unique water purification system, named VYR Methods, and successfully launched the system into 16 European countries.

The innovator, Mr. Rudolf Martinell had a project proposal from Dubai, and I decided to help him, if possible to land the deal.

We went to Dubai and just before the second trip; Rudolf Martinell passes away in a hart attack. 

I tried hard to still honour the family of Martinell and stayed in Dubai to get the project up and running.

But due to some involvements of other individuals, the project was later on closed down.

McGordons Ltd is born in 1998.
Based on the local network of contacts I hade built up I decided to stay and fulfil some of my ideas - that was the ground for how McGordons Ltd become reality.

1999 in December - I got married, for the first time in my life found what I had looked for - a wonderful women from Manila, Philippine. We got married in Manila and my wife, Marinelle and I have today a son, Adrian Känngård, born in Sollefteå Sweden  on the 27 day of September 2002.

2001 we bought a farm in Sweden - Bullerbo and have their settle our self for the summer months which are to hot in Dubai.

During 2001 - McGordons initiate a long term project at Bullerbo to rescue a dying village and create a new era.

Bullerbo AB is the latest creation of companies, in Sweden. Bullerbo has with its board members a desire to develop the village to a recreation paradise, which will be the oasis for new ideas and in the future also the home for a variety of new business activities. 

Curriculum Vitae

Mr. Känngård, a national of Sweden, has been involved at executive level in planning and implementing electronic systems, routines and development concepts since the early 1980s. However, his professional involvement in highly sophisticated IT solutions began already in mid-1970s.

A summary of some of Mr. Känngård’s wide-ranging achievements are identified below:

1978: Developed the first security system for distribution of home video cassettes, launched in Scandinavian by Pressbyrån, as well as all Shell service stations and major radio / TV outlets.

1982: With a team of programmers, launched the first public E-Mail system (BBS) in Sweden – CompuText.. This was the first free public BBS Service with mail and electronic conference system in "Europe". Later sponsored by Digital Equipment, with VA x-computer systems.

1985 – 1989: Founded Voicemail Svenska ab and IFF - The Institute For The Future, with both a social focus as well a focus on building up public voice related services.  Jointly with partners such as Ericsson and Scandinavian Airline System (SAS), we were the first to launch customer applications via the use of touch-tone and rotary telephone.  During this time, also cofounder Voicemail Association (VMA), of which all European PTTs are still members.

1988: Implemented the first real public outsourcing of a governmental service for the social security system in Sweden. 

1989 – 1992: President for ESSELTE VOICE AB, a division of ESSELTE INFO. Launched the 900 and 800-services with Audiotex Voice Response Services in 9 European countries. Started up larger Fulfillment Centers, which handled complete transactions and functions for the customers, such as order, customer support, telemarketing, as well as market research and public surveys. All the work and system solutions, in most cases, were based on DEC Digital Equipment. All the public Voicemail, Audiotex and Voice Response centers were between the early 1980s up to 1989 fully built on Pdp1184 and VAX. Built up back-office utilities including software and educational programs for staff to train them to handle research from remote centers regarding  consumers’ media behavior on a daily basis. 

1993 – 1996: Built up infrastructure for Telitel’s (the first Pan-European tele-operator) IT operations, as well as building infrastructure for corporate and public outsourcing. Innovator and main driving force behind GTi / Electrum, one of the owners of Telitel AB, in Sweden.

1996 – 1998: Founded and started up Trendit Research Sweden ab, the first market and consumer research and survey company with a full-fledged IT solution. The system solution, designed by Mr. Kanngard was developed by a team of programmers covering telephony, with operator-controlled voice function and software which allowed TV broadcasting companies to bring in graphical animations into the studio direct from a remote center, where they conducted the survey.

1982 – 1998: Involved in regional planning programs for municipalities, as well in the development phase of the European Commission’s program for thinly populated areas, related Sweden with a focus on the Vasternorlands lan and Solleftea.

1998 Established McGordons Ltd in Cyprus. As the first industry project, we was trying to start up a mineral water factory in Dubai, UAE, but after a number of hurdles, I needed to put the project aside and focus on consultant work.

1999 General Manager / Advisor for the local Dubai based Telecommunication Company AXIOM TELECOM LLC a subsidiary to The Al Bannai Group of Companies. I developed a new business strategy and ended my terms at the end of the year.

In early 1999 I also worked hard to try to get Dubai to see their potential to become a hub for pre-paid transactions, based on a innovation E-lysium, from a close friend, Mr. Albert Weintraub, Miami USA, who has developed and launched e-lysium and my own conceptual innovation, the d-dollar. Mr. Weintraub is also one of my big mentors whom I have known since early 80^th and greatly supported my efforts here in Dubai.

A new millennium.

2000 Innovated VeriSite™ and then later on joined the great initiative Dubai Internet City DIC, as Business Development Manager in a consultant role.
I also tried to lift in my innovation VeriSite™ as part of an a business concept innovation DiDRA, se further information www.DiDRA.org

Read more, click here related ICANN

DIC was meant to be an IT HUB, in-between East and West, but after a management change the strategy also changed and today DIC has become a more traditional real-estate operator.

During my time in Dubai, I have also headed up a task for the Victory Team, a local but world wide well known offshore boat racing team. Owned by the Dubai Government, there I have helped the team to start to get professional sponsor contract in to support the teams efforts. In my missions I was also appointed to secure Victory Team as a trade name and was also responsible to file a Domain name dispute case at WIPO - the case was another VICTORY for the Victory Team. The Norwegian guys who had made all this problem, become just another Norwegian joke.

During 2001 and 2002 I did make some larger trading deals of mobiles phones which gave the foundation to diversify my investments into different venues, such as a Waste pyrolyze innovation, encryption solutions and continue to work on a vision I did come to share with Albert Weintraub.

2004 was the year when most of the puzzle pieces came together which ignited me to dedicate my life to truly make a difference in the world and bring a new transaction security method and a new revenue model to the global market resulting in that unbankable can become part of the modern e-society.

2005 ViA Virtual Instant Access Ltd was founded in Hongkong, followed by ViA Emirates LLC in Dubai and a range of others companies came to be started.

2010 I move to Thailand after some times of not being well, did get a thrombosis in my leg and where not able to travel for some time. After the recovery, time to re-group the conceptual weaknesses, what we did lack in Dubai I needed to find solutions for in Bangkok.

2011 after having secured financial backing we did acquire Payment Solution 2008 Co Ltd which is a card processing, transaction acquire, card issuer, POS network owner, full member of Visa and Master Card, which where the card issuing arm of OK Capital, started 2005 under the Chin Corporation in Bangkok.

Payment Solution 2008 Co Ltd came later to change name to ViA Card (Thailand) Co Ltd and its controlling owner is the ViA Groups holding company in Switzerland ViA Global Holdings AG in Zug, established 2011.

LOKiP House AG (Lars Olof Kanngard Intellectual Property House) was established in Switzerland, administrate Intellectual properties, trademarks, patent applications and more.

ViA card (Thailand) Co Ltd has also acquired controlling position of ePAY Electronic Payment Network Co Ltd in Bangkok, with today, June 2012 close to 4,000 merchants and close to 3 million my=thy users of telephone top-up services, buying time to use for internet gaming, international calling cards - ICC and top-up for using WIFI services and Internet Services. ePAY is today the largest (non public) network of POS top-up terminals and merchants in Thailand.

My position in the ViA Group, being the founder, the Chairman and President and CVO. The latter stands for Chief Visionary Officer, being a coach with the group and within the team.

More to come....

Sir Dennis Finnigan,

Sten Rönnberg, Ph.D. Professor emeritus in social work, certified psychologist and psychotherapist. mailto:Sten.ronnberg@socarb.su.seail

Sten Rönnberg was writing the following reference letter, just click on the image or you just 
click here on the text.  

Håkan Johnsson

Olof Alderling
Karl-Erik Eriksson
Klas Carlin
Bengt Söderström
Björn Lagerdah
Olof Alderling
Sture Lundin
Albert Weintraub
Sune Hilstad

Do you want to reach Lars Olof Kanngard, send an e-mail.. .

Do you want to visit our Village Project in Sweden, Bullerbo, with remains from the Ice Age which now been transformed into the IT-Age and the @-Age. Go to Bullerbo.