#1703

Bent Jensen & Family

Denmark 74 years old

Overview

Source of Wealth: electric systems
Industry: Manufacturing
Residence: Nordborg
Education: University of Southern Denmark (Bachelor of Arts/Science)

Biography

Bent Jensen is the owner and CEO of Linak, a $680 million (revenue) Danish company that manufactures and sells linear actuators.

Linear actuators are devices that convert power into linear motion and are used in industrial equipment, furniture and hospital beds.

Jensen's grandfather founded the company in 1907; it originally made pulleys, grinding mills and forges.

Jensen, who received a mechanical engineering degree, joined the firm in 1976 -- with an idea for a new product: the linear actuator.

Today the company has factories in Denmark, the U.S., China and Slovakia.

About

Jensen came up with the idea for linear actuators while talking with a friend from school, who had a disability, about ways to improve his wheelchair.