Maria Sigrid Astrid Borelius (born 6 July 1960) is a Swedish former Minister for Foreign Trade,

Science journalist Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists and the public. Origins Modern science journalism originated in weather and other natural history obs ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, working as advisor to global companies, academies and institutions. Maria is a member of the advisory council of Open Europe, a European think tank with offices in London, Brussels and Berlin promoting ideas for economic and political reform of the European Union. Maria is also a Partner with Living Waters, a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based consultancy focusing on CSR, public affairs and developing fundraising strategies. She is an advisor to the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally ...

, which awards the Nobel prize in medicine, and to

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

and works as a columnist with the Swedish business daily, '' Dagens Industri'', mainly covering areas of Entrepreneurship, Science, research, globalization and politics.

Education and career

Between 2007 and 2012 Maria Borelius was the Vice Chairman and CEO of Hand in hand International, a UK based charity, working with partnering organisations in the developing world to promote enterprise and job-creation among marginalized women in the bottom billion. During these years the organisations in India, South-Africa, Afghanistan and India grew from 150,000 women in programs, to over 1 million women, with an international fundraising organization being created with UN partnership, and donors among businesses, private individuals and bilateral institutions. Maria Borelius has been active on several boards of listed companies on the Swedish stock exchange, with a focus on technology companies such as Active Biotech, Sweco and

Telelogic Telelogic AB was a software business headquartered in Malmö, Sweden. Telelogic was founded in 1983 as a research and development arm of Televerket, the Swedish department of telecom (now part of TeliaSonera). It was later acquired by IBM Ration ...

, and within academia, such as the Swedish National Science board. In 2006 stood for Election for the Swedish

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

, on an agenda of promoting entrepreneurship and strengthening schools and universities. Maria Borelius was elected a Member of Parliament from the Stockholm County, and became Minister for Foreign Trade in the centre-right government that was formed after the election. Just eight days after her appointment Borelius resigned from the office. Within a few weeks another minister also resigned. Borelius later admitted that she during the 1990s, when her four children were small, had used child-care without reporting to the tax authorities and paying the full 32% social fees, and in the media frenzy that followed, resigned. The

Swedish Government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...

has since then changed the system by which private child care is partly paid through the so-called “RUT” reforms. Together with TV-entrepreneur Annie Wegelius, she started the digital TV-channel and learning portal K-World. Before this Maria Borelius was active as science

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, and editor for the evening news “Rapport” on Swedish national public TV, and the face of the science program NOVA for many years. She produced numerous TV-programs on popular science, such as “To give birth” which got record audiences. She has written several books on popular medicine, such as “Sedan du fött”, translated into German, Norwegian and Danish, and “Motboken” with Marie Bloom. In 2013 Maria joined the advisory council of Open Europe. Maria Borelius has lived in Great Britain since 2000, is married to Greger Larson, and has four children born 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1995.

Education

* New York University 1986 (Master of Science Reporting) * Lund University 1984 (Fil.kand in Biology, mathematics and physics)

Awards

* 2001 The honorary “Hierta” scholarship from the Swedish Journalist Association. * 1994 Great Journalist prize from the Swedish Cancerfund. * 1984 Scholarship Swedish Science Association.

References

External links

Maria Borelius
at the Open Europe website
Maria Borelius
at 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 ...

website
Maria Borelius
at the

website
Maria Borelius
personal website (Shut down as of October 23, 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Borelius, Maria 1960 births Living people People from Täby Municipality Swedish journalists 21st-century Swedish businesswomen 21st-century Swedish businesspeople Members of the Riksdag from the Moderate Party Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010 Ministers for trade of Sweden Women members of the Riksdag Women government ministers of Sweden 21st-century Swedish women politicians