Urban Bäckström new Director General of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise

Urban Bäckström, at present President and CEO of Skandia Liv, is to be the new Director General of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

Urban Bäckström was born in Sollefteå in 1954. He has extensive experience of politics, business and public administration. He is married with two children.

After graduating in business administration and economics in 1979, he worked as a lecturer in economics at Stockholm University. In 1980–1982 he was desk officer at the then Ministry of Economics Affairs. He was chief economist for the Moderate Party in 1982–83, deputy managing director of Hotell Mollberg in Helsingborg in 1983–85 and chief economist of the Swedish Shareholders’ Association in 1985–86. In 1986 he returned to the Moderate Party as chief economist, remaining in this position until 1989. In 1989–91 he was first deputy managing director and later managing director of the securities brokerage company Consensus Fondkommission. He was state secretary at the Ministry of Finance in 1991–93 and governor of the Swedish Central Bank in 1994–2002. He took up his current position at Skandia Liv in 2003.

“We are pleased to be gaining in Urban Bäckström a highly experienced and generally respected leader of Swedish Enterprise,” says Michael Treschow, Chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

“He possesses a large degree of integrity and at the same time feels strongly about the important questions of the future on which Swedish Enterprise is working.”

Urban Bäckström says that he looks forward with enthusiasm and pleasure to his duties as Director General of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

“The future programme – Advantage Sweden – is an excellent foundation on which to build. It is about better opportunities and conditions for enterprising individuals – a prerequisite for jobs and prosperity in the future.”

The date on which Urban Bäckström will take up his position has not yet been decided.

For more information, please contact:

Per-Lennart Berg, +46 8-553 43 001/ +46 768 09 34 00

Curriculum Vitae: Urban Bäckström

Year of birth: 1954

Married with two children

1979 Degree in Business Administration and Economics, Stockholm University

1978–1980 Stockholm University, Lecturer

1978–1980 Research Assistant, Institute for International Economic Studies

1979–1980 Lecturer in Macrotechnology, Department of Economics

1980–1982 Ministry of Economic Affairs, Desk Officer

1982–1983 The Moderate Party, Chief Economist

1983–1985 Hotell Mollberg, Helsingborg, Deputy Managing Director

1985–1986 Swedish Shareholders’ Association, Chief Economist

1986–1989 Moderate Party, Chief Economist

1989–1991 Consensus Fondkommission, Head of Shares, Deputy Managing Director and Managing Director

1991–1993 Ministry of Finance, State Secretary

1994–2002 Swedish Central Bank, Governor

2003– Skandia Liv, President and CEO