New board - report from our annual meeting
On May 17, 2018, the annual meeting of IT&Telekomföretagen took place in sunny Stockholm. The board was on site for an early board meeting as well as staff and members for the annual meeting itself and the subsequent annual meeting seminar.
At the annual meeting, chaired by Pär Fors, Chairman of the Board, David Mothander, Director of the Association, presented the annual report. In summary, IT&Telekomföretagen has done well:
Its advocacy work has been well received in the political world. The report on the IT skills shortage published last fall has had a particularly strong impact. Furthermore, IT&Telecom companies have often been invited to important discussions with both government representatives and opposition politicians. In some cases, it has also been entrusted with leading and arranging these discussions, as when IT&Telekomföretagen, following an offer from the government, was asked to help arrange a two-day program for the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Association is close to the political decision-making processes.
Membership figures are still on the rise, which is very encouraging. The trend has been positive for several years in a row now. The standard contracts sold by IT&Telekomföretagen now seem to have become some kind of industry standard, which is obviously good for the association.
The annual meeting also decided on a new membership fee. Since Almega has decided to introduce new distribution keys, it has been necessary for IT&Telekomföretagen to take certain measures. The underlying calculations are very complicated, and will not be described here, but the central point of the decision taken at the annual meeting is that none of the member companies will have an increased membership fee, but on the contrary, for the vast majority it means fee reductions. As usual, you can contact the office if you have any further questions.
Finally, a new Board was elected, consisting of:
Chairman:
Pär Fors CGI Re-election
Other members
Patrik Hofbauer Telenor Sverige AB Re-election
Sofia Gerstenfeld Visma Enterprise AB Re-election
Anna Wikland Google Sweden Re-election
Ulf Pehrsson Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson Re-election
Anders Englund Attentec AB Re-election
Magnus Larsson Expander Business Consulting AB Re-election
Johan Rittner IBM Svenska AB Re-election
David Mothander IT&Telekomföretagen Re-election
Karin Schreil Fujitsu Sweden AB Re-election
Staffan Hanstorp Addnode Group AB Re-election
Carl-Johan Hamilton Ants Akademiskt Nätverk av Tekniska studenter AB New election
Peter Uddfors Eltel Networks Infranet AB Newly elected
Håkan Dahlström Tieto Sweden AB Newly elected
Pär Fors, who was re-elected as chairman of the board, was very happy about the confidence.
"It is a great honor and feels great. I spend a lot of time on this assignment, but it's because I'm really passionate about this industry.
In a short interview after the AGM, he briefly outlined what the Board will need to work on in the next financial year.
In general, IT and telecom are so much more relevant than they have been in the past. What is clearer now than ever is that IT can be an enabler for Sweden as a country to take its rightful place on the world stage - but this actually requires a functioning IT and telecom industry. Therefore, what we do is important.
There will also be an election this fall, and we will be present and tell the possible new rulers how we are relevant to the development of society. Then there are the issues that are being pursued within Almega and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, such as skills supply - which is probably the most burning issue for companies in the IT and telecom industry. We could do so much more if we had better lubricants in the skills structure in Sweden. We can certainly do a lot ourselves, but we also need to collaborate with politicians and others.
A new face on the Board is Carl-Johan Hamilton. When asked how it feels to take on a new role, he replied:
It feels good. It is a fun new step because it feels like the IT&Telecom companies really have an important role to play both in the public debate and for the industry as a whole.
He brings a lot of useful experience to the board.
In recent years, I have worked a lot with the IT skills issue, not least within the framework of the IT&Telecom Companies' IT Skills Council, and this is the issue I am most passionate about. How should we - not only as an industry, but also as a society - solve this issue, and manage this fantastic transition that we are facing? How can the IT sector find solutions to the problems and contribute to the change? This is what I am most focused on, and I think it will be a big issue going forward.
For IT&Telecom companies to be useful, we must also be relevant to the new IT sector. And that's where I hope to be able to contribute a perspective to the work of the Board, because it's mainly those companies that I meet all day.
Peter Uddfors is also a new addition to the Board. He also expressed very positive feelings about the new election:
It feels good. I really see the benefit of driving the issues around digitalization, and I look forward to being part of that work. Eltel, where I am CEO, is working on physical expansion and also on maintaining the availability of the networks. This is extremely important, because it is particularly noticeable for people when the connection goes down. For example, my kids at home think that it would be better not to have water in the apartment than not to have a connection.
There is clearly a lot to do, and the work of the new Board started immediately after the AGM with an inaugural Board meeting. A more in-depth look at the challenges facing the sector will be presented and worked on during the Board retreat to be organized in August.