Johan Karlsson

Background

About Johan Karlsson

Johan Karlsson is the Managing Director of Better Shelter, a social enterprise that develops and provides innovative housing solutions for persons displaced by armed conflicts and natural disasters. Better Shelter’s headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden. The organization has received various accolades for design. Johan was recently ranked as one of the top 5 sustainability entrepreneurs in Sweden. During his tenure at Better Shelter, Johan has been an integral part of driving the original innovative product idea of the sustainable shelter to commercialization and delivery. He has held product and business development roles within the organization and been focused on developing and building meaningful partnerships with various humanitarian focused organizations like the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the IKEA foundation. As well Johan has worked with multiple private sector companies to support their humanitarian initiatives and to create engagement with Better Shelter’s mission. Prior to Better Shelter, Johan founded and ran a global design firm, Chen Karlsson, focused on developing innovative designs and providing unique and cutting edge design objects that have been distributed globally to renowned retailers as Droog Design, Manufactum and Illums Bolighus. Johan has an executive MBA from Stockholm School of Economics and an MFA in Industrial Design from Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design.