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

Volvo The Volvo Group (; 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, distribution and sale of truck ...

. He was chairman of BP for eight years, from 2010 to 2018. In December 2023, Svanberg was appointed commission chair to the AI Commission to the Swedish Government

Life and career

Svanberg holds a master's degree in

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

from the Linköping Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

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 ...

. Svanberg holds honorary doctorates from Luleå University of Technology and Linköping University. Svanberg was CEO of telecom company

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

from April 2003 to 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. Svanberg is on other boards, including: * The

investment company An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under th ...

Melker Schörling AB
Stockholm Challenge Advisory Board
Svanberg joined the BP board as chairman-designate in September 2009, and succeeded Peter Sutherland as chairman in January 2010. Svanberg was named the ordförande (chair) of the Sweden's newly formed AI-kommissionen (AI Commission) in December 2023 with the task to deliver a report to the nation by mid-2025. In May 2024, Svanberg announced that his team was bringing the report forward to "mid-autumn 2024, instead of 1 July 2025" to help the nation prepare more rapidly. 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 and is on the board of Djurgårdens IF Hockey. He is a former

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player himself, having played for IF Björklöven in

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; ; ; ; ) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Norrland and the t ...

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

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

In June 2010, Svanberg met with US President

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

to discuss BP's responsibility for the effects of the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

. He caused a PR uproar by afterwards expressing BP's concern for the common people along the

Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states th ...

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, 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