Klas Eklund

Who is Klas Eklund?

Klas Eklund is a Swedish economist and writer.

Eklund was born in Uppsala as the son of the actor couple Bengt Eklund and Fylgia Zadig. He went to high school in Stockholm, but also spent his senior year at Wausau Senior High in Wisconsin, USA. He completed a BA degree in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, where he later completed a Licentiate degree. He also has a degree in economic history and Russian from the University of Stockholm.

From 1982 until 1990, he was employed in the Swedish Ministry of Finance, where he finally held the position of deputy under-secretary of state, and in the Prime Minister's Office, where he was an economic policy adviser and speechwriter to the PM. He was one of the closest collaborators of Kjell-Olof Feldt, the then Minister of Finance, and was seen as one of the leading modernisers of the Swedish Social Democratic party. He has chaired several government commissions, including "The productivity commission" and "The commission to enhance the efficiency of the public sector". Eklund was also the secretary of a joint effort from the labour movement to write a strategic vision of the future beyond the welfare state. He has served as an economic policy adviser to the European Commission, and participated in an international expert group which in 2009 published a plan for China's climate policy.