Ole Kirk Christiansen was a Danish carpenter. In 1932, he founded the construction toy company Lego, later known as The Lego Group. Christiansen transformed his small woodworking shop, which initially sold household products, into a manufacturer of wooden toys. By 1934, he had officially named the company Lego and established its fundamental principles. The business shifted to producing plastic bricks after the acquisition of a plastic moulding injection machine in 1947. Following his death in 1958, the company's management was handed over to his son, Godtfred.
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is a Danish businessman who was the president and CEO of The Lego Group from 1979 to 2004. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Kristiansen is the third richest Dane, with a net worth of US$7.26 billion as of April 2024. He is the grandson of Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen.
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was the managing director of The Lego Group from 1957 to 1973. He was the third son of company founder Ole Kirk Christiansen and took over as managing director in 1957, eventually becoming the sole owner. Godtfred is credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of the Lego brick design and patented it in 1958. He also created the Lego System in Play, the cornerstone of the Lego construction toy. Godtfred stepped down as Leader of the company in 1973. His son Kjeld Kirk Christiansen became president in 1979.
Christiansen is a Danish and Norwegian patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Christian. The spelling variant Kristiansen has identical pronunciation. Christiansen is the sixteenth most common name in Denmark, but is shared by less than 1% of the population.
Kristiansen is a Danish and Norwegian patronymic surname that may refer to the following notable people:
Events from the year 1983 in Denmark.
Laura Tomlinson MBE is a German-British dressage rider competing at Olympic level. As of 30 June 2012 the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) ranked her 3rd in the world riding Mistral Højris and 36th on Andretti H. In that year, Tomlinson, riding Mistral Højris under her maiden name of Laura Bechtolsheimer, won two medals in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; gold for Great Britain in the team dressage with Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, the first ever Olympic team gold in the discipline for her country, and bronze in the individual dressage behind gold medalist and compatriot Dujardin.
Sophie Margaret Christiansen, CBE is an English equestrian who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games. In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the Paralympics. In 2008 she won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics whilst studying for a master's degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs and as a disability campaigner. She qualified for the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics but had to drop out due to her horse not being fit.
Kristy Oatley-Nist is an Australian equestrian. She represented Australia at the 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics in the equestrian discipline of dressage.
Anna Kasprzak is a Danish dressage rider. She represented Denmark at two Summer Olympics. Her best Olympic result came in 2012 when she placed 4th with a Danish team in the team competition. Meanwhile, her best individual Olympic result is 14th place achieved in 2016.
Veronica Egebakken Kristiansen is a Norwegian professional handball player for Győri ETO KC and the Norwegian national team.
Fiona Bigwood is a British dressage rider and winner of a silver medal in the team dressage event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour is a Danish Olympic dressage horse rider. Representing Denmark, she competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where she finished 13th in the individual and 6th in the team competition. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, she finished 4th in both the individual and team dressage events.
The Lego Story is a 2012 Danish 3D computer-animated short film directed by Kim Pagel. The 17-minute animation was produced by Kim Pagel and The LEGO Group to celebrate its 80th anniversary.
Denmark competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Danish athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis.
Charlotte Fry is an English Olympic, European Championships and World Championships medal-winning British dressage rider.
Sofie Kirk Kristiansen is a trained Game Warden from the Game Management School at Kalø. She has also studied Forestry at the former Agricultural University.
Thomas Kirk Kristiansen is a Danish fourth-generation owner of The Lego Group. Together with his father Kjeld, and sisters Agnete and Sofie, they split ownership of a 75% stake in the company.
Kirkbi A/S (Kirkbi) is a Danish investment management company headquartered in Billund, Denmark that serves as a family office to manage the fortune of the Kristiansen family, the current owners of The Lego Group. It owns 75% of The Lego Group and 47.5% of Merlin Entertainments.
