Carl Bildt
Carl Bildt KCMG has an extensive background in politics in Sweden. He served between May 1999 and July 2001 as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans.
Background
Born on 15 July 1949 in Halmstad, Sweden, Bildt has two children, Gunnel and Nils. He is married to Italian national Anna Maria Corazza.
Career
Bildt's involvement with Balkan affairs stretches back to the spring of 1995 when he succeeded Lord Owen as the EU Special Representative to the Former Yugoslavia and Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia.
Following his Co-Chairmanship of the Dayton peace talks, he served until the summer of 1997 as the international community’s High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, monitoring from Sarajevo the implementation of the peace agreement and coordinating its civilian aspects.
In Sweden, he has served as the country’s Prime Minister, leading a four-party coalition, from 1991 to 1994.
During this period he negotiated Sweden’s entry to the European Union, in June 1994, and undertook far reaching 'liberalization and structural reforms' to improve the competitiveness of Sweden and 'modernize' its old-style welfare system. [1]
His career in politics has ranged from the Chairmanship of the Moderate Student Association and then the European Democratic Students in the early 1970s, to the leadership of the Moderate Party of Sweden from 1986 to 1999. He served as member of Parliament between 1979 and 2001.
Bildt has had wide experience in foreign and security affairs: in Sweden he was a member of the Royal Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs (1984-1999) and various Defence Review commissions, including the Submarine Defence Commission of 1982.
Internationally, he has been active in European and Nordic cooperation. From 1992 to 1999, he was the Chairman of the International Democratic Union, bringing together the main centre-right political parties of the world.
He is associated with a number of international organizations and serves on the advisory boards of the Centre for European Reform (London), the Aspen Institute Italia (Rome) and RAND Europe.
In 2000, he headed the Wise Mens Group appointed by the European Space Agency to review the position of space issues within overall European integration. It's report was delivered to the ESA in late 2000.
Today, he serves as Senior Advisor to the VC firm IT-Provider (www.itprovider.com), as non-executive director of IT and telecoms consultancy HiQ (www.hiq.se) and as Chairman of Nordic Venture Network, which brings together the big venture capital firms in the Nordic countries. [2]
During 2001 and the beginning of 2002, he chaired the At-Large-Membership Study Committee set up by ICANN to make recommendations on the public role in the governance of the domain name system of the Internet. (www.icann.org).
In the United States, he serves as the first non-US member ever of the Board of Trustees of RAND (www.rand.org). He is also Senior International Adviser to Akin Gump Global Solutions of the Washington-based law firm (www.akingump.com) and a member of the Board of the global asset managment company Legg Mason (www.leggmason.com).
In Sweden, he is also non-execitive director of the Swedish public affairs consultancy KREAB (www.kreab.com), and the financial group Öhmans (www.ohmans.com).
On the issues of international energy, he is a non-executive director of Lundin Petroleum, [3] Talisman Svenska AB and Vostok Nafta. [4]
He issues his own newsletter in Swedish on international affairs. [5]
Honours
Bildt is the holder of various senior honours and decorations from France (Commander of the Legion d'Honneur), Germany (Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz), the United Kingdom (KCMG, Honorary Knighthood), Estonia and Latvia.
He also has an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he is a Fellow at its Institute for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence and the International Institute For Strategic Studies [6] [7]
Affiliations
Published works
- The Country that Stepped out into the Cold (1972)
- A Future in Freedom (1976)
- A Citizen of Halland, Sweden and Europe (1991)
- Peace Journey (1997).
Notes
- ↑ 'Brussels Forum 2009 - Speaker Biographies', Brussels Forum website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ Carl Bildt - Curriculum Vitae', Office of the High Representative website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ Lundin Petrolem website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ Vostok Nafta website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ Bildt website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ 'Mr Carl Bildt KCMG', International Institute for Strategic Studies website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ 'Carl Bildt - Curriculum Vitae', Office of the High Representative website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
- ↑ 'Bildt, Carl', International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security 2005 website, accessed 1 May, 2009.
