Carl-Henric Svanberg (born 29 May 1952), is a Swedish businessman and current Chairman of

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

. He was Chairman of BP for eight years, from 2010 to 2018.

Life and career

Svanberg holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

applied physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...

from the

Linköping Institute of Technology Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

and a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in business administration from

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

. Svanberg holds honorary doctorates from

Luleå University of Technology Luleå University of Technology is a Public Research University in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The university has four campuses located in the Arctic Region in the cities of Luleå, Kiruna, Skellefteå, and Piteå. With more than 19,000 stude ...

and

Linköping University Linköping University (, LiU) is a public research university based in Linköping, Sweden. Originally established in 1969, it was granted full university status in 1975 and is one of Sweden's largest academic institutions. The university has fou ...

. Svanberg served as CEO of telecom company

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

from 8 April 2003 to 31 December 2009. Following his resignation, he remained on the board of Ericsson and holds 3,234,441 shares in the company. Before joining Ericsson, he led another Swedish industrial company -

Assa Abloy Assa Abloy AB is a Swedish conglomerate whose offerings include products and services related to locks, doors, gates, and entrance automation. Related products and services include controlling access and confirming identities with keys, cards, ...

. Svanberg serves on other boards, including: * The investment company Melker Schörling AB
Stockholm Challenge Advisory Board
Svanberg joined the BP board as chairman-designate on 1 September 2009, and succeeded

Peter Sutherland Peter Denis Sutherland (25 April 1946 – 7 January 2018) was an Irish businessman, barrister and Fine Gael politician who served as UN Special Representative for International Migration from 2006 to 2017. He was known for serving in a variety ...

as chairman on 1 January 2010. He and his wife Agneta, an associate professor at Uppsala University, filed for divorce on 17 September 2009. They were married for 26 years and have three children together. Svanberg is a dedicated fan of

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is name ...

and serves on the board of Djurgårdens IF Hockey. He is a former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player himself, having played for

IF Björklöven IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as Björklöven or Löven) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club in Umeå, Västerbotten, in northern Sweden. The club is currently playing in the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan as of the 2014� ...

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, U ...

during his youth. Svanberg has received the ''Lifetime Achievement Award'', given out by the security trade magazine Detektor, for his work in Assa Abloy and

Securitas In Roman mythology, Securitas was the goddess of security and stability, especially the security of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) ...

, other notable recipients of the award have included Thomas Breglund former CEO of Securitas.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

On 16 June 2010, Svanberg met with US President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

to discuss BP's responsibility for the effects of the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...

. He caused a PR uproar by afterwards expressing BP's concern for the common people along the Gulf Coast of the United States whose livelihood is threatened by the oil spill by saying "we care about the small people", drawing upon the Swedish ''vi bryr oss om de små människorna''. The correct translation of the Swedish phrase would have been "little people". Svanberg subsequently apologized for the term, saying that he had "spoken clumsily".Ann Gerhart
BP boss 'sorry' about 'small people' remark

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, 17 June 2010.

References

External links

*Tricia Bisoux
"Making Connections: Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of telecom giant Ericsson, takes on big problems by offering sweeping solutions"
(profile of and interview with Carl-Henric Svanberg), ''BizEd'' (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International), January/February 2009, pp. 16–20, 22. {{DEFAULTSORT:Svanberg, Carl-Henric Ericsson people Volvo people Chairmen of BP Swedish engineers Linköping University alumni Uppsala University alumni 1952 births Living people Swedish chief executives Swedish chairpersons of corporations IF Björklöven players