Hans Rausing was born in Sweden in 1926. He is the son of Dr. Ruben Rausing—founder of Åkerlund & Rausing and Tetra Pak (a multinational food packaging and processing company)—and Elisabeth Varenius. He obtained a B.A. degree in 1948 from the University of Lund, and holds five honorary doctorates:  

• Doctor h.c. of Economics from Lund University, Sweden, in 1979,
• Doctor h.c. of Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in 1985,
• Doctor h.c. of Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics in 1987,
• Doctor h.c., The American International University, Richmond, London,
• Doctor h.c. of Medicine from Lund University, Sweden, in 2001,
• And in 2001, he was appointed Visiting Professor at Mälardalen University, Sweden.

Hans Rausing was President and/or Chairman of Tetra Pak (later The Tetra Laval Group) from 1954 to 1993.

Outside the The Tetra Laval Group, Rausing was also a member of the board of directors of various companies. These include:

• Stockholm’s Enskilda Bank, Sweden (1970-1972)
• Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Sweden (1973-1982)
• South-Swedish Universities, Sweden (1975-1980)
• Business International, New York (1975-1979)

His Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the University of London supports research, training and archiving of disappearing languages.