Per Erik Gunnar Westerberg (; born 2 August 1951) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

politician who was

Speaker of the Riksdag (English: "Mr Speaker") , residence = , seat = Parliament House , nominator = Riksdag , appointer = The Alderman , termlength = Four years (''de facto'') , inaugural = Henry Allard , formation ...

from 2006 to 2014. He was a

Member of the Riksdag Members of Parliament ( Swedish: ''riksdagsledamöter'', singular: ''riksdagsledamot'') in Sweden sit in the Riksdag. Description ''Members of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the Riksdag. In Swedish, an MP is usually referred to ...

from 1979 to 2014, its most senior member from 2006 to his resignation (see Father of the House). He was Sweden's Minister for Industry and Trade from 1991 to 1994.

Biography

Professional career

Westerberg was born in

Nyköping Nyköping () is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the southern shore of th ...

and graduated from

Stockholm School of Economics The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along with ...

in 1974. From 1974 to 1977, Westerberg was employed at

Saab-Scania Saab-Scania AB was a Swedish vehicle manufacturer that was formed from the 1969 merger of Saab AB and Scania-Vabis. The company was split in 1995. History Truck and bus manufacturer Scania AB of Södertälje merged with car and aeroplane manu ...

Södertälje Södertälje ( , ) is a city in Södermanland and Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. As of 2017, it has 72,704 inhabitants. Södertälje is located at Mälarens confluence in to the Baltic Sea through the lock in the ...

. Westerberg was employed at Saab-Scania (the car division) in

1979–91,Om Per Westerberg
Sveriges Riksdags webbplats member of the board of AB Karl W. Olsson in 1974, Chairman of Cewe Instrument AB 1984–90 and Elwia AB from 1985. He was director of the Enterprise Agency FFV from 1983, member of the Power Management Committee 1978–82, member of the cooperative inquiry 1980–83, member of the inquiry for the recovery of beverage containers etc. 1982–83, and the ownership investigation from 1985. His family has been running a family business for generations.

Political career

Party political career

He was secretary of the Moderate Youth from 1976 to 1978 and political secretary of the

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic lib ...

from 1978 to 1979. Westerberg became vice chairman of the Moderate Party's county

Södermanland Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västman ...

in 1977 and was Union Secretary of the Moderate Youth League from 1977 to 78 as well as regional chairman in Nyköping 1979.

Member of the Riksdag

Per Westerberg is an ordinary

since 1979 and was previously a deputy in 1977 and 1978. He was alternate member of the Finance Committee 1979–82, the Industry and Trade Committee 1979–82 (member 1982–85) and the Labour Market Committee from 1985. Per Westerberg was the longest serving member by his departure from the Riksdag. He also served as

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

of age after the 2006 general election before he was elected Speaker. During the Speaker election in 2006 was, however, the MP who spent the second longest time in the Riksdag (

Social Democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

Margareta Israelsson) acting

because Westerberg in this election was himself disqualified. He was the wealthiest member of the Riksdag, with a personal fortune exceeding 120 million SEK (around 18 million USD as of May 2014).

Cabinet minister

Westerberg was Minister for Industry and Trade in the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

Carl Bildt Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affair ...

from 1991 to 1994.

Speaker of the Riksdag

In 2003 he was elected as first of the three Vice Speakers of the Riksdag, and on 2 October 2006 he was elected

by the new liberal-conservative majority, defeating incumbent

Björn von Sydow Björn Gustaf von Sydow (born 26 November 1945) is a former speaker (''talman'') of the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. He held this office following the 2002 election, when he succeeded Birgitta Dahl, until he was replaced on 2 October 2006. ...

. On 4 October 2010 he was dramatically re-elected as Speaker of the Riksdag, by a 194–153 vote (with 20 votes in favor being from the Sweden Democrats, whose potential decisiveness to his re-election had been viewed as controversial).

Personal life

Per Westerberg lives in

with his wife, physician Ylwa Westerberg, with whom he has four children. His brother, Lars Westerberg, was CEO of Autoliv.

Honours

* : Commander of the Order of the Balkan Mountains * : Grand Cross of the

Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( et, Maarjamaa Risti teenetemärk, sometimes translated as the Order of the Cross of St. Mary's Land) was instituted by the President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, on 16 May 1995 to honour the independence of t ...

* : Grand Cross of the

Order of the White Rose The Order of the White Rose of Finland ( fi, Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Vita Ros’ orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. T ...

* : Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix * : Knight Grand Officer of the

Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg The Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (French: ''Ordre de Mérite du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg'') is an order of merit of Luxembourg, instituted on 23 January 1961 by Grand Duchess Charlotte. Grand Master of the order is the Grand ...

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/crown-princess-victoria-of-sweden-and-per-westerberg-attend-the-nobel-picture-id158096203?s=594x594

References

External links

Per Westerberg
on the