Niclas Kjellström-Matseke is a Swedish-South African business leader with a two-decade career as a marketing-oriented CEO, and international investor in Europe and Africa. He has a special focus on sustainable business, engaged in UN’s pioneering work with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as a Board Member of the SDSN (Sustainable Development Solutions Network).
Niclas was the CEO of Novamedia Nordics since its start 2005-2015. Novamedia/The Postcode Lottery has under Niclas’ 10 years as CEO showed tremendous growth and became the industry’s most profitable company.
Niclas has also over a decade of experience investing for social impact, since Novamedia/The Postcode Lottery became the world’s third largest private donor, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Wellcome Trust, distributing approximately 11 billion USD. In 2016 Niclas relocated to South Africa to build a portfolio of investments in the real estate, environmental engineering and finance industries. He is Founding Partner of the New York-based company 17Asset Management.
Niclas has served on the boards of organizations such as
- The UN’s SDG Centre/Africa (Sustainable Development Goals), with a focus on implementing the SDGs in Africa.
- The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, with a mission to help safeguard Tutu’s legacy and impact.
- The Elders (Advisory Board), where he supported leaders such as President Jimmy Carter, Graca Marcel, Mary Robinson, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Richard Branson in their work for peace and democracy through negotiations with world leaders.
2013 Niclas received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights – The Ripple of Hope Award for his “dynamic and creative leadership” bringing together the business, political and civic communities.
He was born in 1970 in Sweden and holds an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics and Babson College, USA. He also holds a degree in Economics and Social Science from Uppsala University.