Mentor Award

Recipients include:

2012: Michael L. CorbatCEO of Citigroup

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 7th Annual Mentor Award in connection with their eleventh Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in New York on May 3, 2012.

2012 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Michael L. Corbat, CEO of Citigroup. Throughout Michael Corbat’s distinguished career at Citi, he has championed diversity as a business imperative and a competitive advantage. Mr. Corbat recognizes the importance of fostering a diverse meritocracy and the value of a range of perspectives, experience, ideas and backgrounds to creating meaningful value and driving innovative solutions.

Recently, Citi was named by the National Association for Female Executives as one of the “Top 50 Companies for Executive Women,” leading corporate America in recruiting, retaining and advancing women in the workplace and by Working Mother magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies” in 2011. Citi has appeared on the “100 Best Companies” list for twenty-one consecutive years.

2011: Hans VestbergCEO, Ericsson AB

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 6th Annual Mentor Award in connection with their Tenth Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in Stockholm on October 6, 2011.

2011 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Hans Vestberg, CEO, Ericsson AB, for his endeavors in promoting women to executive positions within Ericsson. Mr. Vestberg’s priority and ability to foster diversity in race, culture and gender in Ericsson’s corporate management as well as throughout the company has lead to a strong leadership with a significant increase in diversity within the company.

2010: Jonas BonnierCEO, Bonnier AB

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 5th Annual Mentor Award in connection with the Ninth Annual Executive Women´s Conference on October 7, 2010, in New York.

2010 year’s Mentor Award was presented to Jonas Bonnier, CEO of Bonnier AB, for being essential in promoting women to executive positions in the Bonnier Group. A strong focus on organizational diversity has pervaded Mr. Bonnier´s leadership values and contributed to the second female editor-in-chief for the Swedish leading morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter, since its launch in 1864. Also the Bonnier owned business journal Veckans Affärer recently selected their first female editor-in-chief.

2009: Börje EkholmPresident & CEO, Investor AB

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 4th Annual Mentor Award in connection with their Eight Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in Stockholm on October 1, 2009.

2009 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Börje Ekholm, President & CEO of Investor AB for his endeavors in making Swedish business more gender equal. Studies show that Investor has gone through a transformation to become one of Sweden’s leading companies in gender equality. Mr. Ekholm became President and CEO of Investor in 2005 and the company has ever since shown great initiatives in recruiting women to all levels of the organization. When recruiting new employees, Investor always emphasizes that they are looking for both men and women. Mr. Ekholm is furthermore strongly supporting Investor’s part-owned recruiting company, Novare Management Program, designed for women executives only.

2008: Dr. Percy BarnevikChairman, Hand in Hand International

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 3rd Annual Mentor Award in connection with their Seventh Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in New York on November 6, 2008.

2008 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Dr. Percy Barnevik, Chairman of Hand in Hand, for his extraordinary support and encouragement of women entrepreneurship. The Award was presented in the presence of Swedish Minister for Trade, Dr. Ewa Björling during the Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference at Le Parker Meridien on November 6. The concept of Hand in Hand is to utilize microfinance and education to encourage women to start their own businesses. Over 300,000 women in the province of Tamil Nadu have received backing from Hand in Hand. It has generated more than 180,000 companies, which is the equivalent of 500 businesses being created daily. In addition, Dr. Barnevik serves as Director on the Board of General Motors. Dr. Barnevik has previously held the positions of Chairman and CEO at companies such as Sandvik, Skanska, Investor, ABB, AstraZeneca, and DuPont. As a result of Dr. Barnevik's vast experience, he is frequently approached by national governments to provide advice.