User:Techonewiki/Lars Bøgvad Jeppesen

Lars Bøgvad Jeppesen is a Danish entrepreneur best known as CEO and co-founder of Tech One Global, a software development services and document management solutions company founded in 2003. He has led the company to become one of the top Microsoft Distributor and document imaging agency in East and South Africa and West Asia as well as in Brunei, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Tech One Global also has operations in Singapore, Nepal, Maldives, Dubai, and the Philippines.

Early Life and Education
Lars Jeppesen was born in August 1, 1963 in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen as the first born child of John Jeppesen and Yvonne Christiansen. He grew up and spent most of his childhood in the town of Ballerup, Copenhagen.

Yvonne worked in the Labor Union office for nurses while John worked in Anthon Berg, a chocolate manufacturing company. Yvonne and John sent Lars to Hareskovens Lilleskole or “the little school in the hare forest”, a private liberal school founded and owned by parents. It is located in a forest park in Skovbovænget, Ballerup.

Lars’ childhood was immersed in outdoor and creative activities such as music, film, radio broadcasting, and television. He received his English language proficiency training from Tom McEwan, English musician and actor. Also, during these early years Lars developed interest in music and at the same time in photography as John started to work in Kodak.

John was assigned in Kodak’s equipment manufacturing and maintenance division for motion picture films processing. As a hobbyist, John processed his films in make shift dark rooms in their house’s bathroom. Lars shared his father's interest in photography and film, which bloomed into businesses later in his life.

Following the footsteps of his parents, Lars was also involved in the student government during his adolescence. He attended Lindeskolan and was elected chairman of the student council. His first entrepreneurship project was managing the school’s recreation hall or student villa. While actively participating in student politics and displaying excellent academic performance, Lars continued his interest in music and photography, as band member and concert photographer.

At age 17, while working at the Union head office as summer office employee, Lars decided to pursue photography. His father did not disapprove of this but urged him to get proper education beforehand. Accepting the advice of his parents, Lars then applied and was accepted as student in the School of Photography among the thousands of applicants. At the same time, he was accepted at Nørre Gymnasium in Copenhagen. Lars chose Nørre Gymnasium over the School of Photography and enrolled in a course which focused on music following his parents’ recommendation.

Lars’ first year at Nørre G. was complicated with his dissatisfaction over his current career path. Despite being unmotivated and having poor attendance in class, his academic performance still proved satisfactory. During his second year, at age 18, Lars dropped out of school to pursue a rather unorthodox learning experience. He started working full time in the photo department at an electronics retail shop while continuing his career in music and photography. His first apprenticeship was under a local camera store in the city. Lars was then reassigned at Merlin, a camera and electronics company, to continue his apprenticeship.

Merlin
Lars was assigned in the marketing department at Merlin for two years. Merlin proved to be a conducive environment for the young Lars to develop business ideas. In 1986, a few years after the birth of DOS, Lars had the idea of putting up computer retail. He then co-founded Spaceworld with Mogens Merlin, owner of Merlin.

Spaceworld
Spaceworld was Lars' first major business venture. It was also the first Danish IT specialist retailer in the 1980s. Spaceworld was located in Lyngby Storcenter, Copenhangen.

Kodak
Lars worked for Kodak as business consultant and marketing manager from 1988 to 1998. He moved from Denmark to Dubai and UAE, marketing information capture solutions to airlines worldwide and managing document imaging channels through out West Asia and Africa.

Valuevad
Lars left his 10-year profession in Kodak to accomplish what he considered as the biggest free fall and upturn of his business career. In 1999, Lars founded Valuevad, which is currently one of the leading companies in information capture technology in West Asia. Lars served as Valuevad managing director from 1999 up until its acquisition by Dicom in 2004. He maintained his post as Managing Director in Dicom until the acquisition was completed in 2007.

Tech One Global
From information capture solutions, Lars' businesses evolved into IT distributions, development and services. In 2003, Lars founded Tech One Global (formerly known as Tech Distribution), a software development services and document management solutions oriented company. Tech One Global's services include software distribution and development, IT learning and certifications, document imaging, and professional photo retouching. At present, Tech One Global has become one of the leading Microsoft and Kofax partner, large account distributor and also the first and largest IT business center in Sri Lanka. The company currently has operations in East and South Africa, West Asia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Singapore, Nepal, Maldives, Dubai, and the Philippines.

RetouchPerfekt
Still continuing his passion for photography, Lars started RetouchPerfekt, a photo retouching and image processing company. Lars, along with the RetouchPerfekt retouching team have partnered with Cherie Foto of Beverly Hills photographers from start up to present.

Ananya Farms
In 2012, Lars further expanded his business endeavors by putting up Ananya Farms, a luxury villa and resort located in Cavite, Philippines. Ananya Farms consists of a few individual luxury villas with high end eco-friendly facilities. Ananya Farm company values include green architecture, sustainable development, natural resource management and local livelihood. Ananya Farms is expected to be fully operational by the (first, second, third, fourth) quarter of (year).

Management Style
Lars' tight schedule does not arrest his being innovative as his leadership style involves getting out of the spotlight and letting people excel in their job. "The reason why I have a lot of ideas is because I don't have to be the best," says Lars. As CEO and employer, Lars believes that energy can come from anyone in the company. During his apprenticeship experiences, people believed in Lars' ideas. At present, he is able to pay the favor forward by giving people good opportunities for career development.

Innovations
Delving into software development, Lars is currently developing a capture and tagging mobile application called Etikado. Along with the Tech One Global development team, Lars is also developing Enadoc, a web-based document management system.