SPONSOR PROFILE: Jacob Lund. Photo: Jostein Magnussen / VG
As head of sponsorship in the DNB group, Jacob Lund was a key figure in Norwegian sports. Now he is dead.
Saturday 17 February at 17:44
He lived to be 71 years old. The daughter Kine confirms the death on Facebook. The news comes on the day of the WC relays in his absolute favorite sport, biathlon.
Lund is best known from his time as head of sponsorship at DNB. Among other things, he was central to the sponsorship of the Norwegian national biathlon team, the track and field athletes and the snowboarders.
He was important to performers such as Andreas Thorkildsen, Trine Hattestad, Liv Grete Skjelbred and Ole Einar Bjørndalen – and many more – over many years.
- CELEBRATING: Javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen together with Jacob Lund after the former’s World Cup silver in 2011.
- ROYAL MEETING: Jacob Lund hugs Ole Einar Bjørndalen during his fierce Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002.
- ALWAYS WITH: Jacob Lund together with former hurdler Christina Vukicevic during the 2008 Olympics.
- CENTER: Jacob Lund with Liv Grete Skjelbred, French Raphaël Poirée, Anders Aukland and Marit Bjørgen in 2004.
CELEBRATING: Javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen together with Jacob Lund after the former’s WC silver medal in 2011. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB
KING’S MEETING: Jacob Lund hugs Ole Einar Bjørndalen during his strong Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. Photo: Geir Olsen / VG
ALWAYS WITH: Jacob Lund together with former hurdler Christina Vukicevic during the 2008 Olympics. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB
CENTER: Jacob Lund with Liv Grete Skjelbred, French Raphaël Poirée, Anders Aukland and Marit Bjørgen in 2004. Photo: Line Møller / VG
– He was a legend in Norwegian sports, says Andreas Thorkildsen to VG.
– Jacob created much of how the sponsorship market works today. He was good at seeing solutions and how sponsors and sport could work together. There are many in Norwegian sports who have benefited from the work he did.
– This is sad. He was a very nice partner to work with, says the javelin athlete with gold in the Olympics in both 2004 and 2008.
In his own book “Sponsorkongen”, Lund said that during his time as head of sponsorship, the DNB group had contributed NOK two billion to Norwegian sports.
Jacob Lund fell into a coma on the night of November 16, 2019. After being in a coma for over four months, he woke up in March 2020. He was paralyzed and confused. Could barely speak and kept falling in and out of comas, the book reveals.
When VG asked in 2020 if he felt he had been given the gift of life again, he answered a clear “yes”.
Lund was head of sponsorship in the DnB group between 1992 and 2012, and was named Norwegian sports‘ ninth most powerful man in 2010.
Together with Kjell Kristian Rike and Anders Besseberg, among others, he helped raise the popularity of biathlon.
Jacob Lund (tv) together with Kjell Kristian Rike and Anders Besseberg at the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. The picture was taken during the biathlon relay. Photo: Geir Olsen / VG
– I am sorry that he has passed away. He was early on a partner in international biathlon and the development there. He is a respected name in the development of the sport, says IBU president Olle Dahlin to VG.
He came from Vigrestad, but moved from Jæren to study in Bergen – and never returned. In periods he commuted almost daily between Bergen and Oslo.
– He was energetic, generous, empathetic, engaged, funny, very wise and a wonderful storyteller. We mourn that he has passed away, and warm ourselves with all the good memories, writes daughter Kine Lund TV 2.