Irina Krag-Timgren Swedish businesswoman of Russian origin Country: Sweden

Biography of Irina Krag-Timgren

Irina Krag-Timgren is a Swedish businesswoman of Russian descent and the president of the company 'Planet Fitness'. She was born in 1952 into a family of prominent Soviet circus performers. Although she grew up constantly traveling with her parents' circus, she decided to pursue a different path and enrolled at Moscow State University, majoring in Romance-Germanic languages at the Faculty of Philology.

In 1974, at the age of 22, Irina married a Swedish banker named Bo Krag. The couple moved to Stockholm, where Irina gave birth to their child. After a few years without work, in the late 1970s, Irina, who was by nature an active person, became interested in starting her own business. She refused financial assistance from her husband and instead took a loan from a bank. She rented a basement in the old part of Stockholm and began preparing to open her first restaurant. The basement was soon renovated, and a new sign, designed by a friend of Irina, appeared above it. Irina purchased necessary items such as dishes, a refrigerator, and a coffee maker on installment. The Russian cuisine restaurant she opened soon started generating a stable income. As the owner, head chef, and commercial director of the establishment, Irina was able to open a second restaurant in the early 1980s, this time serving European cuisine.

It is known that Irina continued to educate herself while running her businesses. By the mid-1980s, with two children and a rocky marriage, she sold both of her restaurants and accepted a position as a sales representative for the Finnish company 'Tomesto Svenska', which traded in petroleum products. This decision completely changed her life, as she divorced and remarried for the second time. In the winter of 1986, as a representative of the company, Irina arrived in Moscow, a city she hadn't been to in almost ten years. To her surprise, she found no fitness clubs in the Russian capital, and the word 'fitness' itself was not widely known in the Soviet Union at the time. Upon returning home to Sweden, Irina approached Ulf Bengtsson, the owner of the 'World Class' network, with a proposal to open a branch in Russia. Opening a foreign company in Soviet territory at that time was a challenging task, and it took several years to accomplish. However, in early 1989, the first 'World Class' sports and wellness club was established in the USSR, managed by the renowned athlete Marianne Maslennikova. Irina herself became the vice president of the entire 'World Class' company. Additionally, she expanded the fitness business to other countries where the industry was not yet developed, such as Finland, Norway, Malta, and Turkey.

Later, the head company in Sweden closed, and the Russian firm continued its independent development. Irina Krag-Timgren left this field in 1997. Her next idea was to open the world's largest chain of health clubs, called 'Family Fitness/24 Hour Fitness', in Russia. The concept was to establish an affordable network of mid-range fitness clubs. Thus, the 'Planet Fitness' sports and wellness network opened in Moscow in 1998. Today, 'Planet Fitness' is considered the largest fitness chain in the country in terms of revenue. According to Irina, much of the success depends on the company's effective approach to human resources management. She prefers to personally train specialists for her company and believes that offering a good salary alone is not enough to retain a talented employee. Irina emphasizes the importance of personal growth opportunities for her employees.

Notably, when discussing the success of women in careers, Irina Krag-Timgren believes that many women who could be more successful in business do not achieve their potential due to domestic and family responsibilities. She states, "We give ourselves too much importance. We think that if we don't show up and do everything at home, everything will fall apart. In reality, nothing falls apart. One must experience it firsthand: the home doesn't collapse." Irina is proud that she was able to build her business based on her own ideas and courage, without exploiting other opportunities. She wants to be seen as a professional, and she believes it would be unfair to resort to feminine flirtation if she were poorly prepared or lacked specialized knowledge.

In one of her many interviews to this day, Irina admitted feeling happy as she has achieved the rare harmony where her hobby has become her work and vice versa.