Carl-Henric Svanberg
Carl-Henric Svanberg (born 29 May 1952 in Porjus, Sweden) is a Swedish businessman who is the chairman of Volvo and was the chairman of BP from 2010 to 2018. In December 2023 he was named chair of Sweden’s AI Commission, which aims to deliver a government report by mid-2025; in May 2024 his team said the report would be ready by mid-autumn 2024 to help the country prepare sooner.
He has a master’s degree in applied physics from Linköping Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Uppsala University, plus honorary doctorates from Luleå University of Technology and Linköping University.
Svanberg was CEO of Ericsson from 2003 to 2009 and stayed on the board after stepping down, owning a large number of Ericsson shares. Before Ericsson, he led Assa Abloy and served on other boards.
He joined BP as chairman-designate in 2009 and became chairman in January 2010. He and his wife Agneta, an associate professor at Uppsala University, divorced in 2009 after 26 years and have three children.
A fan of Djurgårdens IF, Svanberg serves on the board of Djurgårdens IF Hockey and formerly played ice hockey for IF Björklöven in his youth. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Detektor magazine for his work with Assa Abloy and Securitas. In June 2010 he met with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss BP’s spill response; he later apologized for a misstep when he said “we care about the small people,” which was criticized as a clumsy translation.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:44 (CET).