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Cristina Stenbeck

Queen Cristina to the Swedish press, Stenbeck, 30, was born in America. With her three siblings, she was handed control of the family’s media empire when her father, Jan Stenbeck, died in 2002. At the time her experience largely consisted of two years working for Ralph Lauren. The A B Kinnevik business includes investment portfolio management, telecoms and the Metro group, which publishes free newspapers in America, Asia and Europe (but not England, where it was repelled by Associated Newspapers). She has consolidated Kinnevik’s two holding companies into one, Investment Kinnevik. Stenbeck, who is married to British businessman Alex Fitzgibbons — Sting (qv) provided the entertainment at their wedding — attended her first management conference at the family company aged 14 and was elected a deputy board member at 19. For the first six months of 2006, Kinnevik’s listed holdings increased by 13% to £2 billion with profits of £270m. Based in London, Stenbeck is valued at £387m by Swedish business magazine Veckans Affarer.