A bit about myself
Born at Tallvik Hospital in Överkalix in the mid-1950s, raised in a small farm in the beautiful village of Forsbyn overlooking the water tower and the church in Morjärv, on the other side of the Kalix river. After high school in Kalix I applied to Luleå University of Technology and popped out with a master of science degree in the mid-1980s.
Then I decided that it was time to experience living somewhere outside Norrbotten for a while and started my employment as an engineer at Televerket Radio in Karlstad. Värmland was fine and good, but in the early 1990s I decided to return to Norrbotten and changed job and location within Telia Research, as the company was called.
When Telia put down the unit I belonged in the 2000s, I chose not to take the offer to move to a similar position in Stockholm but to stay in Luleå. I had been at Televerket and Telia for almost 20 years and our kids were still quite small and we wanted them to grow up here.
Things I’ve been working with
In 20 years you get the time and opportunity to work with many different things, so here’s a quick summary of things I’ve worked with:
- When I started at Televerket Radio in 1985, the main mobile phone system was called NMT 450, and NMT 900 was soon to be launched.
- The work was done on mini-computers which we purchased from Digital Equipment. The operating system was called VAX / VMS. For some time, I was the system manager for the computer environment that was in the newly built office at Kanikenäset in Karlstad.
- I was employed to work with development and soon I became involved in the development of the next generation of mobile telephony, GSM. It meant a lot of travelling to meetings around Europe, both during the standardization work and later to figure out how to test the products that the manufacturers came up with.
- In the early 1990s, the research company Telia Research was formed and the group I belonged to was sorted there. Then we were supposed to be certified according to ISO 9001 and I was appointed quality supervisor for the Karlstad group.
- When the group manager chose to move on to another position, I became acting group manager. I enjoyed that a lot. It was a nice time.
- From 1993, when I moved back to Luleå, I got other types of projects to work with. The one I enjoyed most was the Arena Project, which was based on the question of how one could enhance the experience of various events by using modern technology. It was a collaboration with Ericsson and other parties, linked to the Centre of Distance spanning Technology (CDT), at Luleå University of Technology and with Luleå Hockey as subjects.
Self-employed
In November 2004, my last salary as an employee was paid and after thinking back and forth, and also taking a couple of courses in psychology at the city university, I decided to start a business as technical writer.
Pretty soon, I was asked if I made translations too and since I had worked with English as a working language for many years, I replied that; “Sure, I can do that”. Now, a few years later, I can conclude that translation assignments are the ones I have had the most of.
Team Heja
In 2014, I met the advertising guru Mikael and the designer Jonas, who had a joint business. I and the photographer Camilla joined the company in early 2015 and together we formed the advertising agency Team Heja Sverige AB.
It was an eventful and informative time. Initially, we had a close relationship with Sunderby Tryck, owned by Mikael and Camilla, but when it turned out that it was hard to achieve profitability in the printing business, that company was closed down and Team Heja took over its premises. After a while Jonas left the company but was immediately replaced by Åsa as a new partner.
But say the fun that lasts. Crucial factors, such as personal health and finance in the summer of 2017 led to that only Michael and myself remained as owners. We continued to struggle for a few months before we eventually chose to work with our own respective companies instead of the joint stock company.
From the end of September 2017, I therefore have full focus on running Ord & Mening i Norr, while Mikael runs the brand Team Heja on his own.
Most of the articles that you find under Articles and News in the menu above did I write while I was with Team Heja.
Directorships
Since returning to Luleå and the advent of our children, I have been keen to engage in more or less voluntary board assignments. For example, I have been chairman of the Ormbergsskolan local board for five years, member of the board of Luleå Badminton Club, of which two years as chairman, board member and secretary of Dataföreningen Norrbotten, board member of Mobbingjouren MOD economic association and partner and board member of the advertising agency Team Heja Sverige AB.
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