Bengt Karlsson

Bengt has had a career in civil engineering, with particular expertise in the area of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and software related to its operation. As a co-founder of Abaqus, he was instrumental in building the company into the world’s leading provider of advanced Finite Element Analysis software and services used to solve real-world engineering problems. He left daily operations at Abaqus in 2003, but remained on the board of directors until the company was sold in 2005. He has been an active investor in software-related startups and other companies since departing Abaqus. Prior to Abaqus, Bengt had been a Research Associate at the University of Illinois and had also served as an analyst and programmer at several engineering firms, including a stint with Control Data Corporation in their Stockholm operation.

Bengt is a founding member of the First Run Angels, a group which hails from the White Mountains region of NH, where Bengt also resides. He received a Civil Engineering Degree from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and earned a PhD, also in Civil Engineering, from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.