Jonas Eklund.

It started with a computer.

At twelve, I taught myself to build websites on the family computer. While my friends marvelled at the computer itself, I was captivated by what it could create. So I built Jaznet, an online service that helped others build websites when the web was still in its infancy. That is where it began: at home, in my childhood bedroom.

The computer at home led to computing at school, then science, and eventually technical project management in upper secondary school. Chalmers was not to be. Instead, I found a life in hospitality, where I soon became a manager — a role I have held for 15 years. Today, I am the CEO of a hotel in Borås, combining forward-looking leadership with innovative commercial thinking.

Like many people born in the eighties, we gained a natural head start as computers arrived and digitalisation gathered pace. That curiosity has stayed with me ever since. Computing and IT have always been part of my life — and curiosity still drives me today.

AI, long before it became a trend.

In 2017, I studied AI through Elements of AI at the University of Helsinki. The following year, I built my first smart chatbot to replace a customer service function — and an Alexa that could answer questions about Scandic Hotel. The technology was simple. The questions were not: What should it be allowed to do? And what should a human still do?

If Claude assigned me skills today, they would probably read:

• Master Beginner in Claude
• Black Belt in Gemini
• Creative Director of Lovable Projects
• King of ChatGPT

Joking aside, at the speed AI is evolving, you never stop learning. That is where AI and leadership meet. My greatest AI skill is learnability. I test, build, make mistakes and try again. I learn which tool fits which task, and how a loose idea can become something tangible. The titles are self-appointed. The learning is real.

Why people come first.

AI evolves quickly, demanding ongoing curiosity and engagement to keep up. My leadership philosophy approaches the same idea from the other direction: leadership is perishable — it needs to be continually challenged and renewed. Eklund&Co exists at that intersection, where leadership and AI meet.