Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> November 8, 1999
HANS DALBORG is President and Group Chief Executive of MeritaNordbanken
as from January 1, 1998. Hans Dalborg started his career as a teacher
and administrator at the Stockholm School of Economics, where he also
obtained his doctorate in business administration in 1975. In 1972, he
joined the Skandia Group and was later appointed divisional head. Dr
Dalborg was based in Sydney from 1979-1981 as development manager. On
his return to Sweden he was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the
Skandia Group and, in 1983, CEO of Skandia International, a quoted
company later acquired by the Skandia Group. From 1989-1991, Dr Dalborg
was the Chief Operating Officer of the Skandia Group. Dr Dalborg was
appointed President and CEO of Nordbanken in 1991, at a time when the
Kingdom of Sweden was forced to take full control of the bank in order
to reconstruct it. A new strategic course was set and after a
successful reconstruction, led by the new board and management, the
Kingdom could partly privatise the bank again in 1995 and Nordbanken
returned to the stock exchange as a quoted company. In 1997, a second
tranche of the Kingdom's holding was sold, after which the state holding
in Nordbanken was lowered to 42.5%. In October 1997, the Boards of
Merita, the largest bank in Finland, and Nordbanken proposed a cross-
border merger of the two banks. Dr Dalborg was appointed the new
MeritaNordbanken Group's first President and Group Chief Executive. The
merger, which was approved by the shareholders of both banks in late
1997, is effective of January 1, 1998. MeritaNordbanken is today the
largest banking group in terms of market capitalisation in the north
eastern region of Europe. Dr Dalborg is Chairman of the Board of the
Royal Swedish Opera, Member of the Board of the Stockholm Concert Hall
Foundation, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and East
European Economies (SITE), AB Svenska Spel, and Member of the Royal
Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Profile
MeritaNordbanken, and then bring us up-to-date what you see as your
business and your company today?
Mr. Dalborg: MeritaNordbanken
