Thomas Östros (born 26 January 1965) is a Swedish economist and

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

politician who has been serving as vice president of the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

(EIB) since 2020. Earlier in his career, he held positions as CEO of the Swedish Bankers' Association and Executive Director for Northern Europe at the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

Early life and education

Östros was born in

Malmberget Malmberget ("The Ore Mountain", Finnish language, Finnish and Meänkieli dialects, Meänkieli: ''Malmivaara'') is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and mining town situated in Gällivare Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden. It had 5,590 inhabit ...

, as Björn Thomas Waaranperä, the son of an explosives worker and a housewife. His parents changed their Tornedalian family name to ''Östros'' when they moved from

Norrland Norrland (, , originally ''Norrlanden'', meaning 'the Northlands') is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administrative p ...

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

, because it was easier to pronounce. Östros has a

licentiate degree A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels. The Licentiate (Pontifical Degree) is a post graduate degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universitie ...

(a graduate degree in the Swedish university system) in economics from

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

Political career

Beginnings

During his time at university, Östros was an active member of the local branch of Social Democratic Students of Sweden. He also served as a councillor in the Uppsala Municipal Council.

Career in national politics

In 1994 Östros was elected to the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

as a member of parliament. In 1996, he became the Minister for Taxation at the age of 31, under the Cabinet of Göran Persson, and later served as Minister for Education from 1998 to 2004. In 2004 he switched posts with

Leif Pagrotsky Leif Pagrotsky (born 20 October 1951 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish politician, economist, and diplomat. He served as minister of culture from 2004 to 2006 and minister for industry, employment and communications from 2002 to 2004 under Prime Minis ...

and became Minister for Enterprise and Energy, a position he held on to until the Social Democratic defeat at the general elections of 2006. Östros was also the deputy chairman of the Riksdag's committee for Industry and Trade from 2006 to 2008. In 2008 Östros was appointed economic policy spokesperson for his party, following a leadership dispute between his predecessor Pär Nuder and the newly appointed party chairman

Mona Sahlin Mona Ingeborg Sahlin (; ; born 9 March 1957) is a Swedes, Swedish politician who was leader of the opposition and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. Sahlin was a Parliament of Sweden, Member of Parliament, represen ...

; a post he was forced to resign from in March 2011, coinciding with the ascension of Håkan Juholt as chairman, a candidate he refused to endorse or publicly support. Östros left the party executive committee at about the same time, and subsequently left the Riksdag in July 2012, having spent a total of 17 years as an MP. It has often been said that former Prime Minister

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliame ...

had a lot of confidence in Östros, and he was mentioned in speculations about possible successors to Persson.

Professional career

Östros was appointed CEO of the

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. Through collabor ...

Swedish Bankers' Association in 2012, a position he resigned from in 2015, only to later be named executive director for Nordic and Baltic countries at the

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of la ...

. In January 2020, Östros was appointed vice-president of the

(EIB), under the leadership of

Werner Hoyer Werner Hoyer (born 17 November 1951) is a German economist and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) between 2012 and 2023. Education and early career Hoyer graduated as an e ...

; he succeeded

Alexander Stubb Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb (, born 1 April 1968) is a Finnish politician who has been the 13th president of Finland since 2024. He previously served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015. Rising in politics as a researcher specialis ...

. In 2023, the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Ulf Kristersson Ulf Hjalmar Kristersson (; born 29 December 1963) is a Swedish politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Sweden, prime minister of Sweden since 2022. He has been the leader of the Moderate Party (M) since 2017 and a Member of Parliamen ...

nominated him as Sweden's candidate to succeed Hoyer as president of the EIB; however, the position ultimately went to Nadia Calviño.

Other activities

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2020)Board of Governors

(EBRD).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostros, Thomas 1965 births Living people Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats People from Malmberget Ministers for education of Sweden Swedish people of Finnish descent Tornedalians Uppsala University alumni Ministers for schools of Sweden