About Olle Wästberg

Professional employment: Director-General, Swedish Institute 2005- Consul General of Sweden in New York 1999-2004 Editor in chief for the newspaper Expressen 1994-95 Under-secretary of state for finance and budget 1991-93 President for the Swedish Newspaper Bureau 1983-91 President for the Swedish Council for Wider Ownership of Shares 1976-82 Research Fellow at the Swedish Business and Society Research Centre 1973-76 Journalist, Editorial Section of Expressen 1969-1972 Junior Instructor, Political Science at the University of Stockholm 1967-1968 Editor of the political magazine ”Liberal...

The Peacemaker

Description: New York Times, June 1, 2005 The Peacemaker By Olle Wastberg Stockholm TODAY I will send a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating the former mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for the Nobel PeacePrize. As a former member of the Swedish Parliament I have the right to submit nominees – in the past I nominated Elie Wiesel, who won in 1986 – and I selected Mr. Giuliani because I believe that he has, through his political efforts, saved more human lives than most people alive today. Mr. Giuliani took office in 1994, when the city was rife with gang...

Mixed Feelings

Description: Sweden, Europe and the U.S. I’m very happy to be here. For the last five years, my wife Inger and I have represented Sweden in New York, and in a good portion of the United States. The district (as it’s officially called) of the Consulate General of Sweden in New York extends across the entire United States, with the exception of California and the greater Washington D.C. area. Neither Inger nor I come from the world of diplomacy. Inger was the director general of the Office of the Disability Ombudsman and vicepresident of the board of Stockholm University. I have a...

New Ways of Representing Sweden

Description: The Stockholm Bulletin. Aug 03 The economy of the United States is by far the largest in the world. As such, it is the engine that drives the entire global economy. And when it coughs or slows down, as seen recently, so does the rest of the world.Between 1995 and 2002, the U.S. generated 65% of the world’s total economic growth. A Swedish commercial presence in the United States is therefore critical to our export industries and to our long-term prosperity. Add to this the fact that New York is the world’s greatest stage. What makes a splash in New York will almost...

Evangelizing in the Media Age

Description: Speech at the Stockholm Water Prize Ceremony, Aug 13, 2001 During the past ten years since the first Stockholm Water Seminar was held, over 800 scientists, experts and decision-makers from over 100 countries have every year come to Stockholm. The second Seminar in 1992 already focused on how to make scientists and politicians communicate and speak the same language. For both scientists and organizers the main issue is one that has always been there: We know what needs to be done, and yet still, so little happens—and so slowly. Paradoxically, perhaps many politicians already are...

Sweden and IT

Description: For SACC-USA Among the EU member nations, Sweden is best prepared for the future. This encouraging statement was the result of the most recent study done by the World Economic Forum. If we look for reasons for this result, one we can find is that the baby boomers of Sweden’s population are older than many other countries, and thus that Sweden has already managed to fund a majority of costs for its population in retirement. But the main reason that Sweden is so well prepared for the New Economy is that it leads the world’s nations in Internet use, on-line purchasing...