Carl Kempe

Who was Carl Kempe?

Johan Carl Kempe was leader of the Swedish pulp and paper industry Mo och Domsjö AB and involved in several other companies in the large economic sphere of the Kempe family. He was also a silver medalist in tennis at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

Carl Kempe was born in Stockholm, son of Frans Kempe. He finished secondary school at Norra latinläroverket in Stockholm, studied at Uppsala University 1903-1905 and started to work for Mo och Domsjö in 1906. He succeeded his father as CEO of Mo och Domsjö in 1917. While the company he took over from his father had retained many traits of a traditional lumber producer, Carl Kempe was, through large investments in research and development, chiefly responsible for its transformation into a modern chemical industry.

Kempe himself claimed that he spent his time at university in Uppsala mostly with playing tennis, attending dancing lessons and playing cards; the first of these pastimes, at least, led to his winning a tennis silver medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm in the men's indoor doubles event.