Monday - September 3 - KIRUNA

Monday September 3 – Kiruna

Kiruna Municipality

Kiruna – A significant portion of the city will be moved due to the shifting ground from the LKAB mine.  This presents many unique challenges for the municipality as well as LKAB.  Some of the significant buildings impacted by the impending move are the City Hall, the 100 year old LKAB hotel and the Kiruna church (pictured below).  The church will be moved in several pieces to a new site, however the other 2 buildings referenced will be torn down. 

In discussions with Ann-Catrin Fredriksson, she shared information regarding the town’s city plan and city transformation currently underway for Kiruna.  When Kiruna was originally designed, it was designed as a role model town by city planner Per-Olov Hallman.  LKAB’s first managing director Hjalmar Lundbohm hired the planner to ensure that Kiruna would be a model community.  The The original town of Kiruna included investments in schools, a town plan laid out around topography, and the first daycare in Sweden.  The current design competition is looking for the winning design to be just as innovative as Per-Olov Hallman was in the 1900’s. 

I had the opportunity to met with Mayor Kristina Zakrisson and discuss the challenges she is facing for the town of Kiruna as well as her experiences as a leader.  She has been the mayor of Kiruna for the last 2 years and prior to that a Parliament leader for 16 years.  She is the first female mayor for the town of Kiruna.   With Kiruna’s history as male dominated mining town and women weren’t allowed to work underground until 1979, Kiruna has come a long way.  Kristina believes that the young women of the town need to see women as leaders and role models.  The town has incorporated a look at gender into the 4 year town plan.  

There are three significant industries in Kiruna and I had the opportunity to visit all three:  LKAB mine, tourism (The ICEHOTEL) and Esrange. 

LKAB Mine

Stina, Carol, Marina

We received an extensive tour of the LKAB mine, including a visit to the underground Visitor’s Center, Level 775 of the mine and the production facilities.  The company is the only iron ore mine that mines below the surface.  They have perfected the technology to mine the ore into pellets making the product safer for the environment.  We had the opportunity to meet with one of the production managers, Stina Klemo. Stina is one of several family members who all work at the mine.  She indicated this is quite common in Kiruna.  Stina got her degree in Rock Engineering and is one of several female managers now working below ground.  LKAB has several programs in place where they are working with the local universities to continue to attract talent such as Stina’s to the mine industry. 

Later in the evening we were hosted for dinner by Ann-Christine Lindgren, one of the leaders in LKAB.  We shared excellent dialog on leadership and women in leadership in what used to be a predominantly male industry. 

The ICEHOTEL

Tourism is another major industry in the town of Kiruna.  We were greeted by CEO, Monica Wollmén, who provided a tour of the facility and shared her leadership journey.  She shared her thoughts on how the team continues to keep the idea fresh after 22 years of building a new ICEHOTEL each winter.  The hotel is situated in Jukkasjärvi on the Torne River.  This location has turned out to be key in the concept, as the water from the Torne river is the clearest at the location that they’ve built on and continue to host ice production.  The ice production facility produces the ice for the company’s hotel as well as all of the production for the ICEBARS around the world.  This concept involves a key distribution process as well.  Monica’s leadership message was to continue to grow and empower your team.