Mentor Award

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.

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 2nd Annual Mentor Award in connection with their Sixth Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in Stockholm on October 4, 2007.

2007 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Christian W. Jansson, President & CEO of KappAhl Holding AB since 2002. Prior to joining KappAhl, Mr. Jansson was President of Ellos AB, and he is also a member of several Boards of Directors. Mr. Jansson has always recognized the unique perspective that women bring to business. Throughout his distinguished career in corporations in North America and Sweden, he has actively promoted women and worked for integrated management teams, actions based on his strong belief in the power of diversity. Mr. Jansson was inspired by the U.S. practice of giving greater visibility to women in the workplace. As the President & CEO of KappAhl, a highly successful retail chain of women's clothing, he assures to promote women to key positions both on his management team and on the Board of Directors. A highly regarded Swedish industrialist, Mr. Jansson encourages the appointment of women to board of director positions.

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York presented the 1st Annual Mentor Award in connection with their Fifth Annual Swedish-American Executive Women's Conference in New York on November 9, 2006.

2006 year's Mentor Award was awarded to Mr. Borg, who has been given many titles over the course of his long and successful stint in Swedish-American business: Guru, Super-informant, Heavyweight, Master Matchmaker, Living Legend and the man who knows too much. He is also a person who has worked all his life behind the scenes and is extremely successfully in doing so. Mr. Borg has worked for many multinational companies such as Uddeholm, Nobel Industrier, Pharmacia, Procordia, Volvo, Skandia and SEB. He has worked for Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, Erik Penser, Sören Gyll, Marcus Wallenberg, and Peter Wallenberg, just to name a few. During the past 20 years not much has been going on within the Swedish-American community that he has not been involved with, especially in Sweden. Whenever there is a big event planned, he has been asked to take part in it, as with Sweden's bid to host the 2004 Olympics or The King and Queen's 25th wedding anniversary. And through it all he has built an unparalleled network of executive women through his businesses. His outstanding and exceptional support and encouragement of women in business is unmatched, and this credit is long overdue.