Mr Lovgren was born in Turkuu, Finland and schooled there. He was raised speaking Swedish, and studied engineering at university in Sweden.
He began working for what was then the crane division of KONE Corporation in Sweden in 1973 and had three sons by his first wife. He went on to work for KCI in Norway, was divorced and returned to Sweden in 1979 to run the maintenance organisation there.
He set up his own business, Crane Partner, in 1987, whose main product was a computer-based preventitive maintenance and service software. He married his second wife, Christina, in 1988. That same year, he moved to the USA to work for KCI Konecranes.
He organised more than a dozen World Class Crane Management seminars through Crane Partner, including one with what was then Wilmington Publishing, the publisher of Hoist and sister title Cranes Today.
At the time of his death, he represented the USA and Canada in ISO standards work and was a member and the chairman of Michigan OSHA’s General Industry Advisory Committee for Crane Safety.
In addition to his wife Christina, Mr Lovgren is survived by five grown and eight grandchildren.
