Meet Håkan Apell, an exceptional international business leader, innovator, and senior advisor. He has built his career by solving complex problems and guiding organizations through transformative change. His extensive global experience, spanning Europe, the United States, China, India, and Japan, reflects a spirit of adventure, perseverance, and a deep belief in humanity. Throughout his career, Håkan has worked with large corporations, startups, and scale-ups on groundbreaking projects. These include aerospace engineering, scaling new ventures, advanced flying cars, the Toyota Woven City mega innovation project, and artificial intelligence.

As the founder of Apell International, he provides strategic direction, innovation, and business development services to help leaders and companies achieve success in strategic business transformations and succeed in innovation journeys. 

Early Journey and Educational Foundation

Håkan has always been motivated by tough situations and environments—solving hard problems. He holds two university bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and structural design technology. During his academic studies, he also studied areas such as entrepreneurship, organizational psychology, marketing, communication, and finance. Throughout his life, he found his calling to guide people and help them develop and succeed in their mission. This interest later on saw him work globally, resolving top technical and strategic business issues. He is convinced that the actual learning occurs in the process of direct experience, particularly within the multicultural setting where a broader mindset is required and the ability to always learn, develop, and perform is important. Real-life practices always give you real-life experiences.

Global Professional Experience

Håkan’s career spans multiple industries. He has worked in aerospace engineering, supporting new jet engine development and helping establish a new design engineering office in India. He helped a flying car scale-up company in the United States and worked on the Woven City megainvestment project—Toyota’s Innovation City living laboratory in Japan. In Sweden, he assisted in the development of a joint venture between Volvo Cars and Geely Auto that gave birth to new car brands, such as Lynk & Co. and Zeekr. These diverse projects formed his profound skills in innovation, leadership, teamwork, and leading transformative change.

Apell International: To Serve Others

Håkan established his own firm, Apell International, to serve companies in developing and transforming through impactful decision-making and leading significant transformations. His company provides services of executive advisory, corporate strategy, business development, innovation, venture building, and global ecosystem connections. The rationale is to assist companies and leaders in navigating complex environments, particularly during the age of AI transformation. Together with this, he is currently developing a second venture, built around the latest AI technology to deliver an important mission, with the planned launch in 2026. The new venture aims to produce a positive lasting impact on the many people across the globe.

Key Lessons in Leadership and Entrepreneurship – Håkan Apell

To Håkan, leadership is about connecting people to make a difference, together. As he demonstrates, leaders should be capable of offering the teams a working environment where they can develop, thrive, and achieve their goals together. He says that being an entrepreneur is like riding on no road. You will need to be visionary, curious, and dare to always learn and adapt through experience. The challenges do not imply that they are final, but are an opportunity to learn something new about the unknown. He believes in transformation, improvement, and being committed to always improving the status quo. A big deal of success is about discipline and being resilient, executing on the “roadmap to finding the way” to accomplish the end goal and the North Star. 

Impact and Responsibility in Society

Håkan is not only a measure of impact in terms of achievements but also in terms of his support for others. He advocates for building responsible human-centered AI technology that serves a meaningful purpose for many people. In his opinion, society should make sure that AI is under human control and that it works in the direction of the greater, positive good of the many people—AI for Good.

Long-Term Goals and Vision

Håkan’s vision is to keep on creating meaningful, lasting impact for the many people and society around the world. His passion for international leadership will unlock opportunities to make a difference, learn, and explore the world around us while delivering lasting impact. The new venture that he is developing relates to his long-term vision. Although the information is confidential, the aim is obvious and ambitious: to create real, meaningful value and help improve the lives of thousands of people. The use of artificial intelligence will help to unlock opportunities and solve real-world problems, creating a lasting impact for people and society. Building a new company and brand from the ground up is very hard, but it is also an opportunity for him to utilize his full potential and ability to always learn and connect his network of people and relationships across nations. This adventure demands a comprehensive skill set, the ability to influence, and a genuine capacity to move things forward with a strong vision as the north star.

Advice for Aspiring Leaders – Håkan Apell

Håkan’s advice for aspiring leaders is to learn and define what truly resonates with their passion, what makes them happy, what makes them feel good, and what they are dreaming about to achieve or accomplish in life. Write down the dream, and then use it as the directional North Star in life and in your professional career. Make a plan to live your dream, and then just go for it will create a powerful vision and mission that will help you learn how to overcome challenges, build your resilience, build your discipline, and create your character, which will influence others to follow you—then you are becoming that leader that lives and demonstrates authentic values, a natural leader people look up to and want to follow. Help yourself to dream up the north star, create a roadmap, take action, learn, get the people around you to support you, and celebrate the milestones. The goal is to learn how to win together. 

Encouraging Leadership in Others – Håkan Apell

Leadership is a responsibility. A leader influences other people’s lives, decisions, and direction. Håkan feels that one has to lead by earning trust, respect, and by example. Leaders should act with integrity, relate well with individuals, and make decisions that inspire people to take action. Leadership is about influencing others to take a step in the same direction. Great leaders also create leaders by influencing them and helping them to learn, grow, and build the ability to influence others.

Quote to Live By Håkan

“𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬—𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.” 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐚̊𝐤𝐚𝐧, this quote is a reminder that action should not wait for perfect timing. Change is constant; grab the opportunity to make a difference and live your dream. This will help you to find and navigate towards your happiness in life, together with the people around you, and you will live a happy life. Is that not your desire?

Conclusion

Lastly, the overall life experience, curiosity, and genuine interest in people make Håkan Apell a more suitable leader, as his experience illustrates. His career in industries and cultures shows that he can learn, inspire, and adapt. He is determined to assist organizations in creating meaningful futures via Apell International and his future business, a new venture and brand to operate on the global market.

This message, though simple, means a lot to him—”Find your purpose, live your dreams” in life, and be an authentic leader that helps and influences people to make a difference. Focus your work on how to scale influence and accelerate success together with others, and the meaningful impact you are creating together will grow exponentially—it’s all about people.

𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚̊𝐤𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬.

𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐁 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 :-

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐨𝐡𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝐄 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐥𝐲: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫