Alvar Thiel

Alvar Thiel was born into the Stockholm’s Jewish community as the son of the businessman and prominent cultural figure Arthur Semmy Thiel (1860-1933), who was of Belgian descent. Alvar graduated in 1913 from the Stockholm School of Economics. He first worked in administrative positions for the department store chain Nordiska Kompaniet and then for the Scandinavian Bank. In 1917 he became vice president of an industrial company.

From 1922, he focused on banking as partner in the banking firm Wittenström & Co. In 1934 he joined Uplands Enskilda Bank in Uppsala as fund manager, and was appointed deputy director in 1937, deputy CEO in 1939 and eventually managing director from 1941-58. In the 1950s, he also served as member on the board of various companies.

Thiel was married to Dagmar Kjellberg and they had one daughter and one son. One of his sisters married into the merchant family Heyman. Thiel was a member of the crew of the yacht Sans-Atout in the 8-metre class at the 1912 Olympic Games. The yacht was owned by Bengt, another member of the Heyman family. Thanks to a second place in race one, they made it to the silver medal race, beating the Finnish Lucky Girl by less than one minute.